fess

• IPA^(key): /fɛs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɛs

From confess, by shortening.

fess (third-person singular simple present fesses, present participle fessing, simple past and past participle fessed)

1. To confess; to admit.

• fess up

From Middle English fesse, from Old French fesse, an alteration of faisse, from Latin fascia. Cognate with fajita, fascia, and fascism.

• fesse, feese

fess (plural fesses)

2. (heraldry) A horizontal band across the middle of the shield.

   Hypernym: ordinary

   Coordinate terms: bar, barrulet, closet

   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Norton, published 2005, page 294:

     Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral—Hum! Arms: Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable.

   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 420:

     The space where the arms of Wolsey used to be is being repainted with his own newly granted arms: azure, on a fess between three lions rampant or, a rose gules, barbed vert, between two Cornish choughs proper.

fess

1. (UK dialect) Proud; conceited.
   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 32:

     Y'll be fess enough, my poppet, when th'st know!"

2. (UK dialect) Lively; active; strong.
3. (UK dialect) Of animals, bad-tempered, fierce.

• FSes

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛʃː]
• Rhymes: -ɛʃː

Borrowed from Viennese German fesch (“smart, stylish”), from English fashionable.^[1][2]

fess (comparative fessebb, superlative legfessebb)

1. (colloquial, dated) smart, stylish, chic

fest +‎ -j

fess

1. second-person singular subjunctive present indefinite of fest

• fess in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

From French fesse.

fess

1. bottom, buttock, arse

• Baker, Philip & Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. 1987. Dictionnaire de créole mauricien. Morisyen – English – Français

Named after the city of Fez, Morocco.

fess m (definite singular fessen, indefinite plural fessar, definite plural fessane)

2. fez

• Fess (alternative capitalization)

fess m (definite singular fessen, indefinite plural fessar, definite plural fessane)

2. (music) F-flat

• fess-dur m
• fess-moll m

• “fess” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): [ɸʲes]

From Proto-Celtic *westā (“staying the night; feast”).

• feis, feiss (original dative used as nominative)

fess f (genitive feisse)

1. verbal noun of foïd: (act of) spending the night
2. evening entertainment, feast, festival

• Irish: feis
• Scottish Gaelic: feis

From Proto-Celtic *wissos, from Proto-Indo-European *widtós; akin to Welsh gwŷs and Middle Breton gous.

·fess

1. passive singular perfect prototonic of ro·finnadar

From French fesse.

fess

1. bottom, buttock, arse

• Danielle D’Offay et Guy Lionnet, Diksyonner Kreol - Franse / Dictionnaire Créole Seychellois - Français

• IPA^(key): /fɛsː/
• Rhymes: -ɛsː

fess n

1. (music) F-flat; the note F♭

• fiss