female, a. and n.
(ˈfiːmeɪl)
Forms: 4–6 femelle, (4 femmale, -el), 5–6 femelle, (6 faemale), 5–7 femal(l(e, Sc. famell, (7 foemal), 4– female.
[ME. femelle (14th c.), a. OF. femelle n. fem. (= Pr. femela):—L. fēmella, dim. of fēmina woman.
In class. L. femella occurs only with the sense ‘little woman’; but in popular Lat. it appears to have been used, like the equivalent mod.Ger. weibchen, to denote the female of any of the lower animals, and hence as a designation of the sex in general; cf. masculus, lit. ‘little man’, but used already in class. Lat. both as n. and adj. = ‘male’. The Fr. word has always been chiefly a n. (though a few instances occur of OF. and Pr. femel, med.L. femellus adj.); but from the earliest times it was often used in apposition with an epicene n., thus becoming a quasi-adj., and in modern Fr. it is to some extent used as a genuine adj. (the form femelle serving for both grammatical genders). In Eng., on the other hand, the adjectival use is by far the more prominent: the feeling of the mod. lang. apprehends the n. as an absolute use of the adj. In 14th c. the ending was confused with the adjectival suffix -el, -al; the present form female arises from association with male, with which it rimes in Barbour c 1375.]
A. adj. I. Belonging to the sex which bears offspring.
1. a. of human beings. In Law: heir, line female. Also predicatively.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. i. 27 God made of nouȝt man to the ymage and his lickenes..maal and femaal he made hem of nouȝt. 14.. Black Bk. of Admiralty II. 121 Heyres female. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. iv. xix. 34 He sulde be Kyng of all þe hale Ðat cummyn was be Lyne female. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 154/2 Femelle, feminius. 1594 Barnfield Compl. Chastitie iv, Euerie faemale creature. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 59 Lands halden be frie Soccage, quhen heires male and famell baith persews. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 115 Twelue female beauties. 1671 Milton Samson 711 Who is this, what thing of Sea or Land? Femal of sex it seems. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 394 The word issue equally comprehends male and female children. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxx, His female vassals. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. i. note, White female slaves are kept by many men. |
b. of animals; often = she-.
| 1388 Wyclif Hos. xiii. 8 As a femal bere, whanne the whelps ben rauyschid. a 1400 Octouian 310 A female ape. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iij a, Other while he is male..And other while female and kyndelis by kynde. a 1500 Colkelbie Sow 850 Twenty four chikkynis of thame scho hes, Twelf maill and twell famell be croniculis cleir. 1552 Huloet, Female dragon, dracena. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 490 The Femal Bee, that feeds her Husband Drone. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 298 He enclosed a female scorpion..in a glass vessel. 1870 Pennell Mod. Pract. Angler 148 A female Salmon. |
| absol. c 1320 Seuyn Sag. (W.) 3716 Ye se..How a rauen sittes and cries allane..It es the femal of the thre. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 45 She sigh the bestes in her kinde..The male go with the femele. 1861 P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. xx. (ed. 2) 355 In both male and female the hair is found worn off the back. |
2. transf. of plants, trees: a. When the sex is attributed only from some accident of habit, colour, etc.; sometimes after L. femina. spec. female fern = lady-fern.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 12 The male [pympernel] hath a crimsin floure, and the female hath a blewe floure. 1551 ― Herbal i. (1568) C iij b, Pympernell is of .ij. kyndes: it that hath the blewe floure, is called the female. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 102 b, The female Elmes..have no seede. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. lx. 400 Two kindes of Fernes..the male and female. Ibid. vi. li. 726 The wilde Cornell tree, is called..in Latin, Cornus fœmina: in Englishe, the female Cornel tree. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 48 The female Iuy so Enrings the barky fingers of the Elme. 1597 Gerarde Herball II. ccccxlix. 969 Filix fœmina. Female Ferne or brakes. Ibid. 970 In English Brake, common Ferne, and Female Ferne. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 27 a, The female Larch Tree..is almost of the Colour of Honey. 1728 R. Bradley Bot. Dict. I. s.v. Filix. The sharp pointed Female Fern hath the mains Stalks about a Foot long. 1788 Russell in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 275 The Female Bamboo..is distinguished by the largeness of its cavity from the male. 1846 Ellis Elgin Marb. I. 105 The female myrtle. 1870 Kingsley in Gd. Words 210/1 A male and female papaw, their stems some fifteen feet high. 1878–86 Britten & Holland Plant-n. 178 Female Hems. ‘Wild hemp.’ 1879 Prior Plant-n. 78 Female-fern, of old writers, not the species now called Lady-fern, but the brake. 1908 E. Step Wayside & Woodland Ferns 45 The ancients had their Male and Female-ferns, their Filix-mas and Filix-fœmina. |
b. esp. in female hemp = fimble-hemp: see fimble n.
| 1523, 1877 [see carl hemp 1]. 1577 [see carl hemp 2]. |
c. Of the parts of a plant: Fruit-bearing; resulting in a new individual.
| 1791 Gentl. Mag. 2/2 The ear..is the female part [of maize]. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 118 The stamen..is called..the male part: the pistil, being the recipient, is called the female. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 897 The female cell or oosphere. |
d. Of a blossom or flower: Having a pistil and no stamens; pistillate; fruit-bearing.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 188 In the Ribes alpinum, the male and female flowers are sometimes found on different plants. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §3. 191 Flowers are..Female, when the pistils are present and the stamens absent. 1882 The Garden 11 Mar. 169/3 Little red-tipped female blossoms give promise of a good crop. |
II. Of or pertaining to those of this sex.
3. Composed or consisting of women, or of female animals or plants.
| 1552 Huloet, Female, of the feminine sorte. 1631 Widdowes Nat. Philos. (ed. 2) 49 There be sexes of hearbes..namely, the Male or Female. 1659 Hammond On Ps. lxviii. 11 Annot. 333 All the femal quire..solemnly came out. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 610 That fair femal Troop..that seemd Of Goddesses. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 795 Heifars from his Female Store he took. 1710–11 Swift's Lett. (1767) III. 111 They keep as good female company as I do male. 1772 Ann. Reg. 261 An use of the term female sex..not altogether justified by usage. |
4. a. Of or pertaining to a woman or women.
| 1635 A. Stafford (title), The Femall Glory: or, the Life..of our blessed Lady. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Metam. xii. 809 By a Female Hand..He was to die. 1712–4 Pope Rape Lock iv. 83 There she collects the force of female lungs. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 123 The whole detail of a female-day. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxviii, Nor shrinks the female eye. 1823 F. Clissold Ascent of Mont Blanc 22 note, Female intrepidity may finally surmount danger. 1868 B. Cracroft Ess. II. 277 All this comes of a female instead of a masculine education. |
b. Engaged in or exercised by women.
| a 1690 Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1721) V. 358 Serjeant Francis, and one Mr. Pulford were committed for encouraging this Female Riot. 1762 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. x. (1763) 180 Miriam..led the female Dance and Choir. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 153 A female reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy. 1884 Chr. World 19 June 453/1 Female suffrage was..contrary to the manifest order of nature. |
5. Peculiar to or characteristic of womankind.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 83, I..clothed him in a female habite. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 999 Fondly overcome with Femal charm. 1717 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xlvii. 39 A true female spirit of contradiction. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 258 Chesnuts are good in Female Weaknesses. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 210 ‘My-dearesting’ each other with..female fervour. 1863 Sat. Rev. 385 These letters..Johnsonian in aim, and intensely female—we do not mean feminine—in style. |
† 6. Womanish; effeminate; weakly. Obs.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 114 Boyes..clap their female ioints In stiffe vnwieldie Armes. 1594 Marlowe & Nashe Dido iv. iii, I may not dure this female drudgery. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ii. 65, I have heard them often demaund the English..what they did with such Leprous stuffe [Zante currents]..A question..worthy of such a female Traffike. 1676 Dryden Aureng-Zebe iv. Wks. (1883) V. 263, I smile at what your female fear foresees. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 469 Your female discord end, Ye deedless boasters! 1771 Goldsm. Hist. Eng. II. 227 The king remained in his tent, awaiting the issue of the combat with female doubts and apprehensions. |
III. Applied to various material and immaterial things, denoting simplicity, inferiority, weakness or the like.
† 7. a. Simple; plain, undisguised. b. Inferior.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. i, To tell you the femall truth (which is the simple truth) ladies. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 48 Where there can be a Male-Improvement offer not to the Common-Wealth a Female. |
8. Said of the inner layer of horn on a horse's foot, or of bark on a tree.
| 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 72 If the foot be bruised with the shoo, or that the femall horn be hurt. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 557 The..superficially-formed layer (called the male) is removed from the stem..a new periderm appears..This periderm grows quicker than the external male cork, and is used technically as ‘female cork’. |
9. Said of precious stones, on account of paleness or other accident of colour. Cf. 2 a.
| c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xiv. 158 Thei [the dyamandes] growen to gedre, male and femele. 1601 Holland Pliny xxxvi. xvi. 587 That [loadstone] of Troas is blacke, and of the female sex, in which regard it is not of that vertue that others be. Ibid. xxxvii. vii. 617 The female Sandastres..carrie not such an ardent shew of fire. 1865 Emanuel Diamonds 112 The ancients called sapphires male and female..the pale blue, approaching the white, [was] the female. |
† 10. a. female rime: = feminine rime; see feminine.
| 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 71 Ryme..in the last silable, by the French named the Masculine ryme..in the next to the last, which the French call the Female. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. To Sir R. Howard, The Female Rhymes..are still in use amongst other nations. 1685 ― Albion & Albanus Pref. Wks. (1883) VII. 234 Our scarcity of female rhymes. |
b. Mus. female cadence, female-close (see quot. 1954). Cf. feminine a. 6 b, quot. 1844.
| 1928 E. Blom Limit. Mus. 85 Mendelssohn uses female closes to excess. 1954 Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) III. 60/2 Female, feminine cadence, a cadence in which the concluding chord falls on the weak beat of the bar. |
IV. 11. a. A distinctive term for that part of an instrument or contrivance which is adapted to receive the corresponding or male part.
| a 1856 H. Miller Paper in O.R. Sandst. (1874) 342 The male half of the hinge belongs to the head, and the female half to the jaw. 1889 Mayne's Med. Voc., Female..the part of a double-limbed instrument which receives the male or corresponding part. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xii. 433/1 There is no difference between the male and female Trepan, but for the Pin in the middle which the female wants. |
c. ‘female gauge, an internal or bored gauge’ (Lockwood 1888); ‘female joint, the socket or faucet-piece of a spigot-and-faucet joint’ (Ogilv.); female screw, female socket, a circular hole or socket having a spiral thread adapted to receive the thread of the male screw.
| 1669 Boyle Contn. New Exp. ii. (1682) 11 A Female Screw, to receive the Male-screw of the Stop-cock. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 106 Two Male Screws fitted into two Female Screws. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Philos. 72 The female screw..must be of such a size as to admit the projecting thread of the..male screw. 1870 Eng. Mech. 18 Mar. 653/1 A screw working in a female socket. |
B. n.
1. A female animal: a. of lower animals. Often in his female: his mate.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 331 In euenynges also ȝe[de] males fro femeles. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. xiv. 97 Byrdes that ben femalles may not abyde there. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 15 The females [elephants] are of greater fiercenesse then the males. 1585 J. B. tr. Viret's Sch. Beastes D iv, This bird [Halcion] loveth singularly his femal. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 416 The Wars the spotted Linx's make With their fierce Rivals, for the Female's sake. 1769 J. Wallis Nat. Hist. Northumb. I. xii. 410 A female, with a calf at her foot, is not to be approached without danger. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest iv, The stag..was..acting as a sentinel for the females. 1881 Lubbock Ants, Bees & Wasps 8 The abdomen of the females sometimes increases in size. |
b. generally, including the human species.
| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 122 To knowe a femel fro a male. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 154/2 Femel, no male, femella. 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. ii. ii. v j b, As sone as the man lokedde upon the femalle of his kynde, he beganne to loue her aboue all thynges. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. i. 24 Man..Are masters to their females, and their Lords. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 272 The Female generateth in her selfe, the Male not in himselfe but in the Female. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 320 The female of every animal in a state of parturition is possessed of a placenta, or substance analogous thereto. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 503 Conception and Parturition, in the Human female. |
2. A female person; a woman or girl. a. In express or consciously implied antithesis with male; esp. one of the female individuals in any class or enumeration comprising persons of both sexes.
| c 1315 Shoreham 44 Me schel the mannes lenden anelye, The navele of the femele. 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 59 Ther mycht succed na female. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 139 Of king Williame the successioun did faill..bayth of famell and maill. 1649 Bp. Hall Cases Consc. iv. v. 436 If the like exorbitancies of the other sexe were not meant to be comprehended, females should be lawlesse, and the law imperfect. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 243 Saturne did onely eate up his male children, not his females. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 355 The females..incapable of performing any military service. 1861 Maine Anc. Law 159 The Danish and Swedish laws, harsh..to all females. |
b. As a mere synonym for ‘woman’. Freq. in phr. the female of the species.
The simple use is now commonly avoided by good writers, exc. with contemptuous implication.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 408 Two femalis shulen be grynding at a queerne. c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 311 Of femellys a quantite here fynde I parte. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 441 Cupid is a knauish lad Thus to make poore females mad. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 478 Females have extreames, and two we see, Eyther too wicked, or too good they be. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 45 ¶1, I would strictly recommend to any young females not to dally with men [etc.]. 1773 Wilkes Corr. (1805) IV. 141 Just putting on my hat, to attend the females to church. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. i. 263 Dancing..an essential part of a young female's education. 1849 E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa I. 112 The ‘Totty’ of the present day: and his female, (for the creature can scarcely be dignified by the name of woman). 1865 J. G. Bertram Harvest of Sea (1873) 193 This is performed by females, hundreds of whom annually find well⁓paid occupation at the gutting-troughs. 1889 Pall Mall G. 10 Aug. 7/2 They are no ladies. The only word good enough for them is the word of opprobrium—females. 1911 Kipling in Morning Post 20 Oct. 7/3 (title) The female of the species. 1922 Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert ix. 220 The Bingley-Perkins combination, owing to some inspired work by the female of the species, managed to keep their lead. 1940 H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood ii. i. 144 The female of the species..by the age of fifteen has a clearer sense of reality in these things than most men have to the doddering end of their days. 1961 J. MacLaren-Ross Doomsday Book ii. iii. 128 The female of the species first—take hold of her arm, George. |
3. attrib., as female-bar, female-determiner, female-determining, female-foe; female-bane, transl. of Gr. θηλυϕόνον aconite. lit. ‘a thing deadly to females’; female circumcision = clitoridectomy; female impersonation, the personating of a female by a male on the stage; hence female (im)personator; female pill, any preparation intended as an abortifacient.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 42 Pharamond The founder of this Law, and Female Barre. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 271 Others, for the reason before shewed, call it [Aconite] Theliphonon [marg. Femalbane]. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1753) 445 A thousand such instances are not able to make me a misogenes, a female foe. [1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 197/1 An account of what he calls the circumcision of females..by some of the African tribes is given by Bosman in his ‘Description of the Coast of Guinea’.] 1875 Porcupine 2 Jan. 635/3 Eugene, still facile princeps in female impersonation and falsetto. 1894 Hardy in Harper's Mag. XXIX. Dec. 74/1 Physician Vilbert's golden ointment, life-drops, and female pills. 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 27/1 Female Pills... If the very complete directions..will be followed closely, all will be well... With useful information and instructions to ladies concerning their troubles. 1905 Lancet 18 Nov. 1497/1 Madame Hipolite's world-renowned Female Pills, the safest and surest. 1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 129/1 Female personator ..the performer is a male who impersonates female appearance, singing, and dancing. 1931 J. S. Huxley What dare I Think i. 13 Sex is determined at conception by..male-determining and female-determining [cells], of which the female determiners are a little the bigger. 1931 E. Waugh Remote People 209 The rite of female circumcision..is one of the battlegrounds between missionaries and anthropologists. 1956 H. E. Lambert Kikuyu Soc. & Polit. Inst. vii. 143 An order limiting the operation of ‘female circumcision’ to an incision of sufficient depth and extent for the removal of the glans clitoridis only. (Passed in 1932.) 1957 New Biol. XXIII. 23 The barred horizontal line represents the threshold between male-determining and female-determining concentration zones. 1958 M. Kelly Christmas Egg i. 9 A shop..advertising that a long-dead proprietor had been ‘Agent for Female Pills, by the King's Letters Patent 1743’. 1963 A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 68 Some [transvestites] go on the stage as female impersonators. 1967 Listener 5 Jan. 35/2 Leo McKern's unexpected female impersonation as the Duchess. 1970 Guardian 16 Sept. 11/6 Female circumcision..is the crude severing or scarring of the clitoral area in girls approaching puberty. |
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Add: [B.] [3.] female condom, a contraceptive sheath worn inside the vagina.
| 1988 Independent 21 Apr. 6/1 The female condom..consists of a polyurethane bag with a thin ring of plastic at the open end. 1993 Chicago Tribune 28 Apr. i. 5/3 The Food and Drug Administration moved closer Tuesday to approving the first female condom for sale in the U.S., saying the device offers limited protection against sexually transmitted diseases. |