feud
/fjud/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.62 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A state of long-standing mutual hostility.
noun
A combination of kindred to avenge injuries or affronts, done or offered to any of their blood, on the offender and all his race.
Obsolete
noun
An estate granted to a vassal by a feudal lord in exchange for service.
Example Sentences
- "You couldn't call it a feud exactly, but there had always been a chill between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods."
- "Wherein my sword had not impressure made / Of our ranke feud: but the iust gods gainsay,"
- "Mr. Cumming’s Dionysus in “The Bacchae” is conceived as a rock star, the rhythm-and-blues Maenads as his backup singers and groupies, and his feud with his cousin Pentheus, king of Thebes, as an encounter of the hedonistic, ambigendered, exotic Other, with “the fear of letting that into your culture,” Mr. Tiffany said."
- "The feuds between Namsang and Borduria continued. In 1875-76 the dispute between the Namsang and Borduria arose about the buffaloes which were carried off by Borduria people from Namsang areas."
- "The two men began to feud after one of them got a job promotion and the other thought he was more qualified."
- "As a result of the heel turn, [Riki] Choshu was instantly elevated as a headliner and feuded with [Tatsumi] Fujinami in main events for two years over the WWF [World Wrestling Federation] International Heavyweight strap."
Etymology
Inherited from Northern Middle English fede, feide, from Old French faide, feide, fede, from Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu (“hatred, enmity”) (corresponding to foe + -th), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“hostile”). Cognate to Old English fǣhþ, fǣhþu, fǣhþo (“hostility, enmity, violence, revenge, vendetta”), German Fehde, and Dutch vete (“feud”) (directly inherited from Proto-West Germanic) alongside Danish fejde (“feud, enmity, hostility, war”) and Swedish fejd (“feud, controversy, quarrel, strife”) (borrowed from Middle Low German).
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fjud/
- British English: /fjuːd/
Usage
Inflected Forms
feuds (plural)
fead (alternative)
feaud (alternative)
fede (alternative)
feood (alternative)
fewd (alternative)
fewde (alternative)
fuide (alternative)
fude (alternative)
feuds (present, singular)
feuding (participle, present)
feuded (participle, past)