Chapter 2

The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law. Burrill Bouvier. [1913 Webster]

Accessary before, or after, the fact. See under Accessary. -- Matter of fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.

Syn. -- Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.

Fac"tion (fk"shn), n. [L. factio a doing, a company of persons acting together, a faction: cf. F. faction See Fashion.] 1. (Anc. Hist.) One of the divisions or parties of charioteers (distinguished by their colors) in the games of the circus.

2. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the government, or state; -- usually applied to a minority, but it may be applied to a majority; a combination or clique of partisans of any kind, acting for their own interests, especially if greedy, clamorous, and reckless of the common good.

3. Tumult; discord; dissension.

They remained at Newbury in great faction among themselves.

Clarendon.

Syn. -- Combination; clique; junto. See Cabal.

Fac"tion*a*ry (?), a. [Cf. F. factionnaire, L. factionarius the head of a company of charioteers.] Belonging to a faction; being a partisan; taking sides. [Obs.]

Always factionary on the party of your general.

Shak.

Fac"tion*er (-?r), n. One of a faction. Abp. Bancroft.

Fac"tion*ist, n. One who promotes faction.

Fac"tious (?). a. [L. factiosus: cf. F. factieux.] 1. Given to faction; addicted to form parties and raise dissensions, in opposition to government or the common good; turbulent; seditious; prone to clamor against public measures or men; -- said of persons.

Factious for the house of Lancaster.

Shak.

2. Pertaining to faction; proceeding from faction; indicating, or characterized by, faction; -- said of acts or expressions; as, factious quarrels.

Headlong zeal or factious fury.

Burke.

-- Fac"tious*ly, adv. -- Fac"tious- ness, n.

Fac*ti"tious (?), a. [L. factitius, fr. facere to make. See Fact, and cf. Fetich.] Made by art, in distinction from what is produced by nature; artificial; sham; formed by, or adapted to, an artificial or conventional, in distinction from a natural, standard or rule; not natural; as, factitious cinnabar or jewels; a factitious taste. -- Fac-ti"tious*ly, adv. -- Fac*ti"tious-ness, n.

He acquires a factitious propensity, he forms an incorrigible habit, of desultory reading.

De Quincey.

Syn. -- Unnatural. -- Factitious, Unnatural. Anything is unnatural when it departs in any way from its simple or normal state; it is factitious when it is wrought out or wrought up by labor and effort, as, a factitious excitement. An unnatural demand for any article of merchandise is one which exceeds the ordinary rate of consumption; a factitious demand is one created by active exertions for the purpose. An unnatural alarm is one greater than the occasion requires; a factitious alarm is one wrought up with care and effort.

Fac"ti*tive (?). a. [See Fact.] 1. Causing; causative.

2. (Gram.) Pertaining to that relation which is proper when the act, as of a transitive verb, is not merely received by an object, but produces some change in the object, as when we say, He made the water wine.

Sometimes the idea of activity in a verb or adjective involves in it a reference to an effect, in the way of causality, in the active voice on the immediate objects, and in the passive voice on the subject of such activity. This second object is called the factitive object.

J. W. Gibbs.

Fac"tive (?), a. Making; having power to make. [Obs.] "You are . . . factive, not destructive." Bacon.

||Fac"to (?), adv. [L., ablative of factum deed, fact.] (Law) In fact; ||by the act or fact.

De facto. (Law) See De facto.

Fac"tor (?), n. [L. factor a doer: cf. F. facteur a factor. See Fact.] 1. (Law) One who transacts business for another; an agent; a substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker. Story. Wharton.

My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.

Marlowe.

2. A steward or bailiff of an estate. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

3. (Math.) One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied together, form a product.

4. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result; a constituent.

The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition.

H. Spencer.

Fac"tor, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factored (-t?rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Factoring.] (Mach.) To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.

Fac"tor*age (?), n. [Cf. F. factorage.] The allowance given to a factor, as a compensation for his services; -- called also a commission.

Fac"tor*ess (?), n. A factor who is a woman. [R.]

Fac*to"ri*al (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to a factory. Buchanan.

2. (Math.) Related to factorials.

Fac*to"ri*al, n. (Math.) (a) pl. A name given to the factors of a continued product when the former are derivable from one and the same function F(x) by successively imparting a constant increment or decrement h to the independent variable. Thus the product F(x).F(x + h).F(x + 2h) . . . F[x + (n-1)h] is called a factorial term, and its several factors take the name of factorials. Brande & C.

(b) The product of the consecutive numbers from unity up to any given number.

Fac"tor*ing (?), n. (Math.) The act of resolving into factors.

Fac"tor*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factorized (-?zd); p. pr. & vb. n. Factorizing (-?"z?ng).] (Law) (a) To give warning to; -- said of a person in whose hands the effects of another are attached, the warning being to the effect that he shall not pay the money or deliver the property of the defendant in his hands to him, but appear and answer the suit of the plaintiff. (b) To attach (the effects of a debtor) in the hands of a third person ; to garnish. See Garnish. [Vt. & Conn.]

Fac"tor*ship, n. The business of a factor.

Fac"to*ry (?), n.; pl. Factories (-r&?;z). [Cf. F. factorerie.] 1. A house or place where factors, or commercial agents, reside, to transact business for their employers. "The Company's factory at Madras." Burke.

2. The body of factors in any place; as, a chaplain to a British factory. W. Guthrie.

3. A building, or collection of buildings, appropriated to the manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in fabricating goods, wares, or utensils; a manufactory; as, a cotton factory.

Factory leg (Med.), a variety of bandy leg, associated with partial dislocation of the tibia, produced in young children by working in factories.

Fac*to"tum (fk*t"tm), n.; pl. Factotums (- tmz). [L., do everything; facere to do + totus all : cf. F. factotum. See Fact, and Total.] A person employed to do all kinds of work or business. B. Jonson.

Fac"tu*al (fk*t"al), a. Relating to, or containing, facts. [R.]

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||Fac"tum (fk"tm), n.; pl. Facta (#). [L. See Fact.] 1. (Law) A man's ||own act and deed; particularly: (a) (Civil Law) Anything stated and ||made certain. (b) (Testamentary Law) The due execution of a will, ||including everything necessary to its validity.

2. (Mach.) The product. See Facient, 2.

Fac"ture (?), n. [F. facture a making, invoice, L. factura a making. See Fact.] 1. The act or manner of making or doing anything; -- now used of a literary, musical, or pictorial production. Bacon.

2. (Com.) An invoice or bill of parcels.

||Fac"u*lÊ (?), n. pl. [L., pl. of facula a little torch.] (Astron.) ||Groups of small shining spots on the surface of the sun which are ||brighter than the other parts of the photosphere. They are generally ||seen in the neighborhood of the dark spots, and are supposed to be ||elevated portions of the photosphere. Newcomb.

Fac"u*lar (?) a. (Astron.) Of or pertaining to the faculÊ. R. A. Proctor.

Fac"ul*ty (?), n.; pl. Faculties (#). [F. facult&?;, L. facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.] 1. Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.

But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve Reason as chief.

Milton.

What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty !

Shak.

2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.

He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.

Hawthorne.

3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]

This Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek.

Shak.

4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.

The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise.

Fuller.

It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.

Evelyn.

5. A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, ect.

6. (Amer. Colleges) The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.

Dean of faculty. See under Dean. -- Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See under Advocate.

Syn. -- Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.

Fac"und (?), a. [L. facundus, fr. fari to speak.] Eloquent. [Archaic]

Fa*cun"di*ous (?), a. [L. facundiosus.] Eloquement; full of words. [Archaic]

Fa*cun"di*ty (?), n. [L. facunditas.] Eloquence; readiness of speech. [Archaic]

Fad (?), n. [Cf. Faddle.] A hobby ; freak; whim. -- Fad"dist, n.

It is your favorite fad to draw plans.

G. Eliot.

Fad"dle (?), v. i. [Cf. Fiddle, Fiddle-faddle.] To trifle; to toy. -- v. t. To fondle; to dandle. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Fade (?) a. [F., prob. fr. L. vapidus vapid, or possibly fr,fatuus foolish, insipid.] Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace. [R.] "Passages that are somewhat fade." Jeffrey.

His masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and ludicrous.

De Quincey.

Fade (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Faded; p. pr. & vb. n. Fading.] [OE. faden, vaden, prob. fr. fade, a.; cf. Prov. D. vadden to fade, wither, vaddigh languid, torpid. Cf. Fade, a., Vade.] 1. To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.

The earth mourneth and fadeth away.

Is. xxiv. 4.

2. To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color. "Flowers that never fade." Milton.

3. To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.

The stars shall fade away.

Addison

He makes a swanlike end, Fading in music.

Shak.

Fade, v. t. To cause to wither; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to wear away.

No winter could his laurels fade.

Dryden.

Fad"ed (?), a. That has lost freshness, color, or brightness; grown dim. "His faded cheek." Milton.

Where the faded moon Made a dim silver twilight.

Keats.

Fad"ed*ly, adv. In a faded manner.

A dull room fadedly furnished.

Dickens.

Fade"less, a. Not liable to fade; unfading.

Fa"der (?), n. Father. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Fadge (?), v. i. [Cf. OE. faden to flatter, and AS. f&?;gan to join, unit, G. f¸gen, or AS. fÊgian to depict; all perh. form the same root as E. fair. Cf. Fair, a., Fay to fit.] To fit; to suit; to agree.

They shall be made, spite of antipathy, to fadge together.

Milton.

Well, Sir, how fadges the new design ?

Wycherley.

Fadge (?), n. [Etymol. uncertain.] A small flat loaf or thick cake; also, a fagot. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Fad"ing (?), a. Losing freshness, color, brightness, or vigor. -- n. Loss of color, freshness, or vigor. -- Fad"ing*ly, adv. -- Fad"ing*ness, n.

Fad"ing, n. An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song. "Fading is a fine jig." [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Fad"me (?), n. A fathom. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Fad"y (?), a. Faded. [R.] Shenstone.

FÊ"cal (?), a. See Fecal.

||FÊ"ces (?), n. pl. [L. faex, pl. faeces, dregs.] Excrement; ordure; ||also, settlings; sediment after infusion or distillation. [Written ||also feces.]

||FÊc"u*la (?), n. [L.] See Fecula.

Fa"Îr*y (?), n. & a. Fairy. [Archaic] Spenser.

Faf"fle (?), v. i. [Cf. Famble, Maffle.] To stammer. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Fag (fg) n. A knot or coarse part in cloth. [Obs.]

Fag, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fagged (fgd); p. pr. & vb. n. Fagging (fg"gng).] [Cf. LG. fakk wearied, weary, vaak slumber, drowsiness, OFries. fai, equiv. to fch devoted to death, OS. fgi, OHG. feigi, G. feig, feige, cowardly, Icel. feigr fated to die, AS. fge, Scot. faik, to fail, stop, lower the price; or perh. the same word as E. flag to droop.] 1. To become weary; to tire. [1913 Webster]

Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag.

G. Mackenzie.

2. To labor to wearness; to work hard; to drudge.

Read, fag, and subdue this chapter.

Coleridge.

3. To act as a fag, or perform menial services or drudgery, for another, as in some English schools.

To fag out, to become untwisted or frayed, as the end of a rope, or the edge of canvas.

Fag, v. t. 1. To tire by labor; to exhaust; as, he was almost fagged out.

2. Anything that fatigues. [R.]

It is such a fag, I came back tired to death.

Miss Austen.

Brain fag. (Med.) See Cerebropathy.

Fag"-end" (?), n. 1. An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a rope, ect.

2. The refuse or meaner part of anything.

The fag-end of business.

Collier.

Fag"ging (fg"gng), n. Laborious drudgery; esp., the acting as a drudge for another at an English school.

Fag"ot (fg"t) n. [F., prob. aug. of L. fax, facis, torch, perh. orig., a bundle of sticks; cf. Gr. fa`kelos bundle, fagot. Cf. Fagotto.] 1. A bundle of sticks, twigs, or small branches of trees, used for fuel, for raising batteries, filling ditches, or other purposes in fortification; a fascine. Shak.

2. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a pile.

3. (Mus.) A bassoon. See Fagotto.

4. A person hired to take the place of another at the muster of a company. [Eng.] Addison.

5. An old shriveled woman. [Slang, Eng.]

Fagot iron, iron, in bars or masses, manufactured from fagots. -- Fagot vote, the vote of a person who has been constituted a voter by being made a landholder, for party purposes. [Political cant, Eng.]

Fag"ot (?) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fagoted; p. pr. & vb. n. Fagoting.] To make a fagot of; to bind together in a fagot or bundle; also, to collect promiscuously. Dryden.

||Fa*got"to (?), n. [It. See Fagot.] (Mus.) The bassoon; -- so called ||from being divided into parts for ease of carriage, making, as it ||were, a small fagot.

||Fa"ham (?), n. The leaves of an orchid (Angraecum fragrans), of the ||islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, used (in France) as a substitute ||for Chinese tea.

||Fahl"band` (?), n. [G., fr. fahl dun-colored + band a band.] (Mining) ||A stratum in crystalline rock, containing metallic sulphides. ||Raymond.

{ Fahl"erz (?), Fahl"band (?), } n. [G. fahlerz; fahl dun-colored, fallow + erz ore.] (Min.) Same as Tetrahedrite.

Fah"lun*ite (f‰"ln*t), n. [From Fahlun, a place in Sweden.] (Min.) A hydrated silica of alumina, resulting from the alteration of iolite. [1913 Webster]

Fah"ren*heit (?) a. [G.] Conforming to the scale used by Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit in the graduation of his thermometer; of or relating to Fahrenheit's thermometric scale. -- n. The Fahrenheit thermometer or scale.

The Fahrenheit thermometer is so graduated that the freezing point of water is at 32 degrees above the zero of its scale, and the boiling point at 212 degrees above. It is commonly used in the United States and in England.

||Fa`Ô*ence" (?), n. [F., fr. Faenza, a town in Italy, the original ||place of manufacture.] Glazed earthenware; esp., that which is ||decorated in color.

Fail (fl) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Failed (fld); p. pr. & vb. n. Failing.] [F. failir, fr. L. fallere, falsum, to deceive, akin to E. fall. See Fail, and cf. Fallacy, False, Fault.] 1. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops fail.

As the waters fail from the sea.

Job xiv. 11.

Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.

Shak.

2. To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of.

If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to their size.

Berke.

3. To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.

When earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.

Milton.

4. To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails.

5. To perish; to die; -- used of a person. [Obs.]

Had the king in his last sickness failed.

Shak.

6. To be found wanting with respect to an action or a duty to be performed, a result to be secured, etc.; to miss; not to fulfill expectation.

Take heed now that ye fail not to do this.

Ezra iv. 22.

Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.

Shak.

7. To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be baffled or frusrated.

Our envious foe hath failed.

Milton.

8. To err in judgment; to be mistaken.

Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not.

Milton.

9. To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.

Fail (?), v. t. 1. To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.

There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.

1 Kings ii. 4.

2. To miss of attaining; to lose. [R.]

Though that seat of earthly bliss be failed.

Milton.

Fail, n. [OF. faille, from failir. See Fail, v. i.] 1. Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail. "His highness' fail of issue." Shak.

2. Death; decease. [Obs.] Shak.

Fail"ance (?), n. [Of. faillance, fr. faillir.] Fault; failure; omission. [Obs.] Bp. Fell.

Fail"ing, n. 1. A failing short; a becoming deficient; failure; deficiency; imperfection; weakness; lapse; fault; infirmity; as, a mental failing.

And ever in her mind she cast about For that unnoticed failing in herself.

Tennyson.

2. The act of becoming insolvent of bankrupt.

Syn. -- See Fault.

||Faille (?), n. [F.] A soft silk, heavier than a foulard and not ||glossy.

Fail"ure (?), n. [From Fail.] 1. Cessation of supply, or total defect; a failing; deficiency; as, failure of rain; failure of crops.

2. Omission; nonperformance; as, the failure to keep a promise.

3. Want of success; the state of having failed.

4. Decay, or defect from decay; deterioration; as, the failure of memory or of sight.

5. A becoming insolvent; bankruptcy; suspension of payment; as, failure in business.

6. A failing; a slight fault. [Obs.] Johnson.

Fain (?), a. [OE. fain, fagen, AS. fÊgen; akin to OS. fagan, Icel. faginn glad; AS. fÊgnian to rejoice, OS. fagann, Icel. fagna, Goth. faginn, cf. Goth. fahds joy; and fr. the same root as E. fair. Srr Fair, a., and cf. Fawn to court favor.] 1. Well-pleased; glad; apt; wont; fond; inclined.

Men and birds are fain of climbing high.

Shak.

To a busy man, temptation is fainto climb up together with his business.

Jer. Taylor.

2. Satisfied; contented; also, constrained. Shak.

The learned Castalio was fain to make trechers at Basle to keep himself from starving.

Locke.

Fain, adv. With joy; gladly; -- with wold.

He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.

Luke xv. 16.

Fain Would I woo her, yet I dare not.

Shak.

Fain, v. t. & i. To be glad ; to wish or desire. [Obs.]

Whoso fair thing does fain to see.

Spencer.

||Fai`nÈ`ant" (f`n`‰N"), a. [F.; fait he does + nÈant nothing.] Doing ||nothing; shiftless. -- n. A do-nothing; an idle fellow; a sluggard. ||Sir W. Scott.

Faint (fnt), a. [Compar. Fainter (-r); superl. Faintest.] [OE. feint, faint, false, faint, F. feint, p. p. of feindre to feign, suppose, hesitate. See Feign, and cf. Feint.] 1. Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst.

2. Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected; depressed; as, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." Old Proverb.

3. Lacking distinctness; hardly perceptible; striking the senses feebly; not bright, or loud, or sharp, or forcible; weak; as, a faint color, or sound.

4. Performed, done, or acted, in a weak or feeble manner; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy; slight; as, faint efforts; faint resistance.

The faint prosecution of the war.

Sir J. Davies.

Faint, n. The act of fainting, or the state of one who has fainted; a swoon. [R.] See Fainting, n.

The saint, Who propped the Virgin in her faint.

Sir W. Scott.

Faint, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fainted; p. pr. & vb. n. Fainting.] 1. To become weak or wanting in vigor; to grow feeble; to lose strength and color, and the control of the bodily or mental functions; to swoon; -- sometimes with away. See Fainting, n.

Hearing the honor intended her, she fainted away.

Guardian.

If I send them away fasting . . . they will faint by the way.

Mark viii. 8.

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2. To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.

If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

Prov. xxiv. 10.

3. To decay; to disappear; to vanish.

Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.

Pope.

Faint (?), v. t. To cause to faint or become dispirited; to depress; to weaken. [Obs.]

It faints me to think what follows.

Shak.

Faint"-heart`ed (?), a. Wanting in courage; depressed by fear; easily discouraged or frightened; cowardly; timorous; dejected.

Fear not, neither be faint- hearted.

Is. vii. 4.

-- Faint"-heart`ed*ly, adv. -- Faint"-heart`ed*ness, n.

Faint"ing (?), n. Syncope, or loss of consciousness owing to a sudden arrest of the blood supply to the brain, the face becoming pallid, the respiration feeble, and the heat's beat weak.

Fainting fit, a fainting or swoon; syncope. [Colloq.]

Faint"ish, a. Slightly faint; somewhat faint. -- Faint"ish*ness, n.

Faint"ling (?), a. Timorous; feeble-minded. [Obs.] "A fainting, silly creature." Arbuthnot.

Faint"ly, adv. In a faint, weak, or timidmanner.

Faint"ness, n. 1. The state of being faint; loss of strength, or of consciousness, and self-control.

2. Want of vigor or energy. Spenser.