Adjacent Words

Female definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FE'MALE, n. [L. femella. See Feminine.]
1. Among animals, one of that sex which conceives and brings forth young.
2. Among plants, that which produces fruit; that which bears the pistil and receives the pollen of the male flowers.
FE'MALE, a.
1. Noting the sex which produces young; not male; as a female bee.
2. Pertaining to females; as a female hand or heart; female tenderness.
To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America.
3. Feminine; soft; delicate; weak.
Female rhymes, double rhymes, so called from the French, in which language they end in e feminine.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces fertilizable gametes (ova) from which offspring develop; "a female heir"; "female holly trees bear the berries" [ant: androgynous, male]
2: characteristic of or peculiar to a woman; "female sensitiveness"; "female suffrage" [syn: female, distaff]
3: for or pertaining to or composed of women or girls; "the female lead in the play"; "a female chorus" n
1: an animal that produces gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes (spermatozoa) [ant: male]
2: a person who belongs to the sex that can have babies [syn: female, female person] [ant: male, male person]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Date: 14th century 1. a. (1) of, relating to, or being the sex that bears young or produces eggs (2) pistillate b. (1) composed of members of the female sex <the female population> (2) characteristic of girls or women <composed for female voices> <a female name> 2. having some quality (as gentleness) associated with the female sex 3. designed with a hollow or groove into which a corresponding male part fits <the female coupling of a hose> • femaleness noun II. noun Etymology: Middle English, alteration of femel, femelle, from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French femele, from Medieval Latin femella, from Latin, girl, diminutive of femina Date: 14th century 1. a. a female person ; a woman or a girl b. an individual that bears young or produces large usually immobile gametes (as eggs) that are fertilized by small usually motile gametes of a male 2. a pistillate plant

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 of the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs. 2 (of plants or their parts) fruit-bearing; having a pistil and no stamens. 3 of or consisting of women or female animals or female plants. 4 (of a screw, socket, etc.) manufactured hollow to receive a corresponding inserted part. --n. a female person, animal, or plant. Phrases and idioms: female impersonator a male performer impersonating a woman. Derivatives: femaleness n. Etymology: ME f. OF femelle (n.) f. L femella dimin. of femina a woman, assim. to male

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Female Fe"male, n. [OE. femel, femal, F. femelle, fr. L. femella, dim. of femina woman. See Feminine.] 1. An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova. The male and female of each living thing. --Drayton. 2. (Bot.) A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Female Fe"male, a. 1. Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young, or (in a wider sense) which produces ova; not male. As patient as the female dove When that her golden couplets are disclosed. --Shak. 2. Belonging to an individual of the female sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female tenderness. ``Female usurpation.'b8 --Milton. To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America. --Belknap. 3. (Bot.) Having pistils and no stamens; pistillate; or, in cryptogamous plants, capable of receiving fertilization.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(females) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Someone who is female is a woman or a girl. ...a sixteen-piece dance band with a female singer... Only 13 per cent of consultants are female. ? male ADJ 2. Women and girls are sometimes referred to as females when they are being considered as a type. Hay fever affects males more than females. ? male N-COUNT 3. Female matters and things relate to, belong to, or affect women rather than men. ...female infertility. ...a purveyor of female undergarments... ? male ADJ: ADJ n 4. You can refer to any creature that can lay eggs or produce babies from its body as a female. Each female will lay just one egg in April or May. ? male N-COUNT • Female is also an adjective. ...the scent given off by the female aphid to attract the male. ? male ADJ 5. A female flower or plant contains the part that will become the fruit when it is fertilized. Figs have male and female flowers. ? male ADJ: usu ADJ n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

fe'-mal: Two Hebrew words are thus translated:

(1) neqebhah, which is merely a physiological description of the sexual characteristic (from naqabh, "to perforate"), and which corresponds to zakhar, "male" (see under the word).

(2) 'ishshah, with the irregular plural nashim (only Ge 7:2, in all other places "wife," "woman"), the feminine form of 'ish, "man."

The Greek word is thelus, literally, "the nursing one," "the one giving suck" (from thelazo, "to suckle").

Israelitic law seems frequently guilty of unjust partiality in favor of the male sex, but we have to consider that most of these legal and religious disabilities of women can be explained from the social conditions prevailing at the time of legislation. They are therefore found also in contemporaneous Gentilereligions. Though traces of this prejudice against the weaker sex are found in the New Testament, the religious discrimination between the sexes has practically ceased, as is evident from Ga 3:28: "There can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus"; compare also 1Pe 3:7.

H. L. E. Luering

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Breeding, bearing, conceiving, offspring-bearing, child-bearing. 2. Pistillate, pistil-bearing, fertile. 3. Of females, belonging to or characterizing females. 4. Feminine, delicate, soft, weak, gentle.

Moby Thesaurus

distaff, female being, feminine, gentlewomanlike, girlish, gynecic, gynecoid, gynic, her, kittenish, ladylike, little-girlish, maidenly, matronal, matronlike, matronly, muliebral, petticoat, she, womanish, womanlike, womanly