fist
/fɪst/ noun, verb
Forms fists fisting fisted
- noun A hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward. “The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.”
- noun Synonym of manicule.
- noun (amateur radio) The characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code.
- noun (slang) A person's characteristic handwriting.
- noun A group of men.
- noun The talons of a bird of prey.
- noun (informal) An attempt at something.
- verb To strike with the fist.
- verb To close (the hand) into a fist.
- verb To grip with a fist.
- verb (slang) To fist-fuck.
- verb (transitive, gaming) To stomp, to utterly defeat
- verb (intransitive) To break wind.
- noun The act of breaking wind; fise.
- noun A puffball.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti (“fist”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to punch; to prick, stab”).
Cognate with Yola fest, hist (“fist”), Saterland Frisian Fäste, Fääste (“fist”), West Frisian fûst (“fist”), Central Franconian Fuus (“fist”), Cimbrian bòista, vòista (“fist”), Dutch vuist (“fist”), German Faust (“fist”), Low German Fuust (“fist”), Luxembourgish Fauscht (“fist”), Vilamovian faojst, faust (“fist”), Yiddish פֿויסט (foyst, “fist”); also Irish fuaigh (“sew, stitch”), Latin pugnus (“fist”), Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist”), πύκτης (púktēs, “boxer, pugilist”), Lithuanian kumštis (“fist”), Bulgarian пестник (pestnik, “fist; punch”), Czech pěst (“fist”), Polish pięść (“fist”), Russian пясть (pjastʹ, “metacarpus”), Serbo-Croatian пе̏ст, pȅst, пѐсница, pèsnica (“fist”), Slovak päsť (“fist”), Slovene pest (“fist”). More at five.
From Middle English fisten, fiesten, from Old English *fistan ("to break wind gently"; supported by Old English fisting (“breaking wind”)), from Proto-Germanic *fistaz (“breaking wind, fart”), from Proto-Germanic *fīsaną (“to break or discharge wind, fart”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Cognate with Dutch veest (“a fart”), Low German fīsten (“to break wind”), German Fist (“a quiet wind”), Fisten (“breaking wind”), Swedish fisa (“to fart”), Latin spīrō (“breathe, blow”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The hand with the fingers doubled into the palm; the closed hand, especially as clinched tightly for the purpose of striking a blow.
- noun The talons of a bird of prey. [Obs.]
- verb To strike with the fist. Dryden.
- verb To gripe with the fist. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. fist, fust, AS. f; akin to D. vuist, OHG. f, G. faust, and prob. to L. pugnus, Gr. Pugnacious, Pigmy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fist”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details