FEEL, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive felt. [Latin palpo. the primary sense is to touch, to pat, to strike gently, or to press, as is evident from the Latin palpito, and other derivatives of palp. If so, the word seems to be allied to Latin pello.]

1. To perceive by the touch; to have sensation excited by contact of a thing with the body or limbs.

Suffer me that I may feel the pillars. Judges 16:26.

Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son.

Genesis 27:12.

2. To have the sense of; to suffer or enjoy; as, to feel pain; to feel pleasure.

3. To experience; to suffer.

Whoso keepeth the commandments shall feel no evil thing. Ecclesiastes 8:5.

4. To be affected by; to perceive mentally; as, to feel grief or woe.

Would I had never trod this English earth, or felt the flatteies that grow upon it.

5. To know; to be acquainted with; to have a real and just view of.

For then, and not till then, he felt himself.

6. To touch; to handle; with or without of.

FEEL this piece of silk, or feel of it.

To feel or to feel out, is to try; to sound; to search for; to explore; as, to feel or feel out one's opinions or designs.

To feel after, to search for; to seek to find; to seek as a person groping in the dark.

If haply they might feel after him, and find him. Acts 18:1.

FEEL, verb intransitive

1. To have perception by the touch, or by the contact of any substance with the body.

2. To have the sensibility or the passions moved or excited. The good man feels for the woes of others.

3. To give perception; to excite sensation.

Blind men say black feels rough, and white feels smooth.

So, we say, a thing feels soft or hard, or it feels hot or cold.

4. To have perception mentally; as, to feel hurt; to feel grieved; to feel unwilling.

FEEL, noun The sense of feeling, or the perception caused by the touch. The difference of tumors may be ascertained by the feel Argillaceous stones may sometimes be known by the feel [In America, feeling is more generally used; but the use of feel is not uncommon.]