fat 
Dan. fed (with long vowel), fat. For the AS. 
contr. fcett, < "fitted, fat, cf. fcett, < fated (both 
in use), gilded, ornamented.] I. . 1. Having 
much flesh other than muscle ; having an un- 
usual amount of flesh ; corpulent; obese: as, a 
fat man ; a, fat ox. 
gif thei [the children] ben/atte, ttiei eten hem anon. 
Manderille, Travels, p. 179. 
Next was November ; he full grosse and fat 
As fed with lard. Spenser, V. Q., VII. vii. 40. 
Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord, 
A gross/of man. 
Car. As, fat as butter. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 
I will feed/a< the ancient grudge I bear him. 
Shak., M. of V., i. 8. 
2. Containing the substance called fat (see 
II.); containing or consisting of fat, oil, or 
grease ; oily ; greasy ; unctuous : as, a fat dish ; 
fat cheese. 
And for his beef, says he, " look how fat it is, the lean 
appears only here and there a speck, like beauty-spots." 
Pepys, Diary, III. 1. 
With citron groves adorn a distant soil, 
And the fat olive swell with floods of oil. 
Addison, Letter from Italy. 
Hence 3. Containing much resin ; resinous: 
as, fat pine. [U. S.] 4. Containing much 
plastic or unctuous matter ; pinguid : said of 
clay which is free from intermingled sand, and 
consequently highly plastic ; or of lime made 
from limestone which contains but a small 
amount (ten per cent, or less) of the ordinary 
impurities of limestone silica, alumina, oxid 
of iron, etc. 
What are called fat clays those, that Is to say, which 
are very plastic and unctuous shrink very much, losing 
from one-third to one-fourth of their bulk ; they are also 
very liable to crack or twist during the firing. 
JSncyc. Brit., XIX. 600. 
5. Having or showing, in mind or movement, 
the qualities of a fat animal ; heavy ; dull ; 
stupid. 
Duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed 
That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Shak. , Hamlet, i. 5. 
There is little or no sense in the fat parts of any crea- 
ture: hence the ancients said of any dull fellow that he 
had a. fat wit. Holy David Clear'd (1706), p. 257. 
6. Well supplied with what is needful or de- 
sired ; abounding in comforts ; prosperous. 
They [the righteous] shall be fat and flourishing. 
Ps. xcii. 14. 
These were terrible alarms to persons grown fat and 
wealthy by a long and successful imposture. 
South, Sermons. 
7. Abundant in production, or yielding large 
profits ; rich in results or yield ; profitable. 
The bulbes of calcases settyng sone 
In landes moiste and fatte is goode this moone. 
Palladium, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 85. 
After I was entered into Lombardy I observed ... in- 
finite abundance of fat meadows. 
Coryat, Crudities, I. 111. 
Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees. 
Milton. 
His whole divinity is moulded and bred up in the beg- 
garly and brutish hopes of a fat Prebendary, Deanery, or 
Bishoprick. Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
And fixes their regard on Congress as the creator of fat 
jobs. The American, VI. 38. 
8. Naut., broad, as the quarter of a ship. Fat 
amber. See amber'*. Fat work, fat take, in type-set- 
ting, work, or a piece of work, especially profitable to the 
compositor from having much open space (filled up with 
quadrats or leads), abounding with woodcuts, or in any 
other way admitting of rapid execution. The extra profit 
arises from the fact that the scale of prices for piece-work 
makes no discrimination in this respect. To beat or Ink 
fatt.in printing, toovercolor(aform of types) with an ex- 
cess of ink. To cut It too fat. See cut. 
II. n. [=D.vet,G.fett,Sw. fett = T>a,n.fedt, 
fat,n.; from the adj.] 1. A white or yellowish 
oily solid substance forming the chief part of 
the adipose tissue of animals, and also found 
in plants. In chemistry the fats are odorless, tasteless, 
colorless or white bodies, which may be either solid or 
liquid. They are insoluble in water and cold alcohol, but 
dissolve freely in ether, chloroform, and benzine. The 
solid neutral fats, like spermaceti, suet, and lard, and 
the liquid non-volatile oils, like sperm- and olive-oil, are 
classed together as fats. They are compound ethers form- 
ed by the union of fatty acids with the triatomic alcohol 
glycerin. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, but contain no nitrogen. The most common and 
abundant are stearin, palmitin, and olein. Of these stearin 
and palmitin are solids at ordinary temperatures, and olein 
is a liquid. Most animal and vegetable fata are mixtures 
of two or more of the simple fats, and their hardness de- 
pends largely on the relative quantity of olein or other 
liquid fat in them. When a fat is treated with an alkali, 
the fatty acid unites with the alkaline base, making a soap, 
and glycerin is set free. When a soap is treated with an 
acid, the base is taken from the fatty acid which is thus 
set free. 
The Indian Fair 
Is nicely smear'd with Fat of Bear. 
Prior, Alma, ii. 
2152 
Every face, however full, 
Padded round with flesh and /at, 
Is but modell'd on a skull. 
Tennygon, Vision of Sin. 
2. The best or richest part of a thing. 
We see their plenty depended not so much upon the fat 
of the laud, as upon the dew and blessing of heaven. 
Stillinyjkvt, .Sermons, I. viii. 
If now they conquer. 
The /at of all the kingdom lies before 'em. 
Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2. 
3. In type-setting, work which for any reason 
is unusually profitable to the compositor. See 
fat work, aboveThe fat is in the fire, all has re- 
sulted in confusion and failure ; matters have been made 
worse. 
Oer. Here's a woman wanting. 
Count. We may go whistle ; all the fat's i' t he fire. 
Fletcher (and another), Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 
One would have thought that, the examination failing 
and no vote passed tending that way, all this/a? had been 
in the fire. Roger North, Examen, p. 623. 
fat 1 (fat), v. ; pret. and pp. fatted, ppr. fatting. 
[< ME. fatten, < AS. foettian, intr., become fat, 
ge-fcettian, make fat, anoint, < fcett, fat : see fat 1 , 
a. Cf. fatten.] I. trans. To make fat; fatten. 
And thrushes fede upon that other syde ; 
lofaat hem is avayling and plesaunte. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 21. 
When Rome sent the Flowr 
Of Italy, into the wealthy Clime 
Which Euphrates fats with his fruitful! slime. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 2. 
Ere this, 
I should hn\e fatted all the region kites 
With this slave's offal. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 
He . . . fats his fortune shortly 
In a great dowry with a goldsmith's daughter. 
Middleton, Chaste Maid, ii. 1. 
II. intrans. To become fat; grow fat. 
fat 2 (fat), . [< ME. fat, fet, also (southern 
ME.) vat, vet (whence the usual E. form vat), < 
AS. feet (= OS. fat = D. vat = LG. rat = OHG. 
faz, MHG. vaz, G. fass = Icel. fat = Sw. fat = 
Dan. fad), a vessel; perhaps connected, as a 
' containing ' vessel, with D. vatten = OHG. faz- 
zon, MHG. vazzen, G. fassen = Dan. fatte = 
Sw. fatta, seize, take, hold, contain.] 1. A 
large open vessel for water, wine, or other 
liquids; a tub; a cistern: now usually vat 
(which see). 
I schal fette yow a fatte youri fette for to wasche. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 802. 
With stronge ale bruen in fatten and in tonnes. 
Nug<e Poeticce (ed. Halliwell), p. 10. 
The/o shall overflow with wine and oil. Joel ii. 24. 
2f. A dry measure, generally equal to 9 bushels. 
The statement sometimes met with that a/at was 14 bush- 
els arose simply from a misprint of 56 for 36 (the number 
of bushels in a chaldron). The Swedish fat is only 158 
liters. 
A London alderman . . . sold a Jew five fatts of right- 
handed gloves without any fellows to them. 
Tom Brown, Works, III. 23. 
fatal (fa'tal), a. [< ME. fatal = D. fataal = 
G. Dan. Sw. fatal, < OF. fatal = F. Sp. Pg. fa- 
tal = It. fatale, < L. fatalis, of or belonging to 
fate or destiny, destined, fated, deadly, fatal, 
<fatum, fate: see /ate.] If. Proceeding from 
or decreed by fate or destiny; inevitable; fated. 
These things are fatal and necessary. Tillotson. 
That/atoi necessity of the stoics is nothing but the im- 
mutable law of his will. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 20. 
2. Fraught with fate; influencing or deciding 
fate ; fateful. 
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
OUT fatal shadows that walk by us still. 
Fletcher, Upon An Honest Man's Fortune. 
Dost thou thirst, base Trojan, 
To have me fold up Parca's/ata( web? 
Shak., Hen. V., v. 1. 
What is printed seems to every man invested with some 
fatal character of publicity such as cannot belong to mere 
MS. De Quincey, Style, iv. 
The objection will doubtless be raised that instinct is 
wholly destitute of the characteristic of intelligence in 
that it has no choice; its operation is fixed, fatal. 
G. H. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, Int., I. ii. 32. 
3. Foreboding or associated with disaster or 
death; ominous. 
Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, 
That nothing sung but death to us and ours. 
Shak., 3 Hen. VI., ii. 6. 
4. Causing or attended with death or destruc- 
tion; deadly; mortal; destructive; disastrous; 
ruinous: as, a fatal accident. 
It was now the sixth Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, 
a Year/oto< for the Death of many great Personages. 
Baker, Chronicles, p. 333. 
I will ever to the/o(o day of my life honour the mem- 
orie of that incomparable man [Virgil]. 
Coryat, Crudities, I. 140. 
fatality 
The/at( facility of Italian rhyme which has created the 
improvisatnre IHTU breaks forth. 
.V. nnd Q., eth ser., XI. 77. 
There is no self-delusion more fatal than that which 
makes the conscience dreamy with the anodyne of lofty 
sentiments, while the life is grovelling and sensual. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. a;:J. 
5f. Doomed; cursed. 
From forth tlic fatal loins of these two foes 
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life. 
Shak., R. and J., Prol. 
fatalism (fa'tal-izm), n. [= D. G . fatalismus = 
Dan. fatalisms = Sw. fatalism, < F.fatnllxiiie = 
Sp. Pg. U.fatalismo; as fatal + -ism.] 1. The 
doctrine that all things are subject to fate, or 
come or go by inevitable predetermination. 
Fatalism is a doctrine which does not recognize the deter- 
mination of all events by causes, in the ordinary sense; 
holding, on the contrary, that a certain foreordained result 
will come about, no matter what may be done to prevent 
it. Fatalism is thus directly opposed to necessitarianism, 
according to which every event is determined by the evenU 
which immediately precede it, in a mechanical way. Ne- 
cessitarianism seems hardly to leave room for Dual causes, 
while fatalitm is the doctrine that certain results are sure 
to come in spite of all that efficient causes may do to pre- 
vent them. See necessity. 
To confute these three fatalisms, or false hypotheses of 
the system of the universe, Cudworth designed to dedicate 
three great works one against atheism, another against 
immoral theism, and the third against the theism whose 
doctrine was the inevitable " necessity " which determined 
all actions and events, and deprived man of his free 
agency. /. D'Israeli, Amen, of Lit., II. 398. 
Necessity simply says that whatever is is, and will vary 
with varying conditions. Fatalism says that something 
must be ; and this something cannot be modified by any 
modification of the conditions. 
0. H . Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, I. 309. 
2. A disposition to regard everything as the re- 
sult of or predetermined by fate ; the accept- 
ance of all conditions and events as inevitable. 
It was vain to resist the wrath of God ; and so a wretch- 
ed fatalism bowed to a more utter prostration the cowed 
and spiritless race. Milman, Latin Christianity, v. 9. 
Not content with the overwhelming prestige which its 
name thus gives it, the free-will doctrine seeks to follow 
up its advantage by identifying its antagonist with Asi- 
atic fatalitm, J. Fuke, Cosmic Philos., II. 185. 
fatalist (fa'tal-ist), n. [= D. G. Dan. Sw. fa- 
talist, < F.fataliste = Sp. Pg. It. fatalista; as 
fatal + -ist.~\ 1. A believer in fatalism; one 
who maintains the opinion that all things hap- 
pen by inevitable predetermination. 
Fatalists, . . . such as hold the material necessity of 
things without a Deity, . . . that is indeed the atheists. 
Cudworth. 
The third sort of fatalists do not deny the moral attri- 
butesof the Deity, in his nature essentially benevolent and 
just. /. D'Israeli, Amen, of Lit., II. 398. 
2. One whose conduct is controlled by belief 
in fatalism ; one who accepts all the events 
and conditions of life as proceeding from or 
leading to an inevitable fate : as, Orientals are 
naturally fatalists. 
Giovanni comes upon the scene a professed and daring 
infidel, and, like all other infidels, a fatalist. 
Oifford, Int. to Ford's Plays, p. xxxi. 
To the confidence which the heroic fatalist [William of 
Orange] placed in his high destiny and in his sacred cause 
is to be partly attributed his singular indifference to dan- 
ger. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. 
fatalistic (fa-ta-lis'tik), a. [< fatalist + -ic.] 
Pertaining to fatalism ; implying fatalism ; 
savoring of fatalism. 
Would you have me believe that the events of this world 
are fastened to a revolving cycle, with God at one end and 
the Devil at the other, and that the Devil is now upper- 
most? Are you a Christian, and talk about a crisis in that 
fatalistic sense ? Coleridge, Table-Talk. 
fatality (fa-tal'i-ti), n. ; pi. fatalities (-tiz). [= 
D. fataliteit = G. fatalitiit = Dan. Sw. fatalitet, 
< F. fatalite = Sp. fatalidad = Pg. fatalidade = 
It. fatalitd, < LL. fatalita(t-)s, fatal necessity, 
fatality, < Ii. fatalis, fatal: see/ata/.] 1. The 
quality of being fatal ; f atalness : as, the fatal- 
ity of an event. 2. A fixed, unalterably pre- 
determined course of things, independent of 
any controlling cause ; a doom which inevita- 
bly must be, whatever forces may oppose it; 
an invincible necessity existing in things them- 
selves. 
Think not to fasten thy imperfections on the stars, and 
so despairingly conceive thyself under a fatality til being 
evil. Sir T. Browne, Christ. Mor., iii. 7. 
There is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable 
that it has the force of doom. 
Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, v. 
There must have been a sort of grim fatality steering 
me, and neutralizing all reflections likely to hold me back. 
W. C. Russell, A Strange Voyage, ii. 
3. Tendency to destruction or danger, or to 
some hazardous, critical, or fatal event ; mor- 
tality; deadliuess. 
