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''felon'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125123911-00-⌔

felon - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

felon

  • (chiefly poetic) Of a person or animal, their actions, thoughts, etc.: brutal, cruel, harsh, heartless; also, evil, wicked.
    • ✤ For Courteſies, tho’undeſerv’d and great,/No gratitude in Fellon -minds beget,/As tribute to his VVit, the churl receives the treat.1
    • ✤ And tvventy youths in radiant mail incas’d,/Cloſe ambuſh’d nigh the ſpacious hall he plac’d./Then bids prepare the hoſpitable treat:/Vain ſhevvs of love to veil his felon hate!2
    • ✤ Nor outvvard Tempeſt, nor corroſive Time,/Nought but the felon undermining Hand/Of dark Corruption, can it’s Frame diſſolve,/And lay the Toil of Ages in the duſt.3
    • ✤ Yes, Leila sleeps beneath the wave,/But his shall be a redder grave;/Her spirit pointed well the steel/Which taught that felon heart to feel.4
  • (by extension) Of a place: harsh, savage, wild; of a thing: deadly; harmful.
    • ✤ He ask’d the VVaves, and ask’d the Fellon vvinds,/VVhat hard miſhap hath doom’d this gentle ſvvain?5
    • ✤ Thus often unbelief grovvn ſick of life,/Flies to the tempting pool or felon knife,/The jury meet, the coroner is ſhort,/And lunacy the verdict of the court: […]6
    • ✤ The hand that mingled in the meal,/At midnight drew the felon steel,/And gave the host’s kind breast to feel/Meed for his hospitality!7
  • (obsolete, rare) Obtained through a felony; stolen.
    • ✤ Thus hee that conquer’d men, and beaſt moſt cruell,/(VVhoſe greedy pavves, vvith fellon goods vvere found)/Anſvver’d Goliah ’s challenge in a duell,/And layd the Giant groveling on the ground: […]8

Noun

felon (plural felons)

  • (criminal law) A person who has committed a felony (“a serious criminal offence”); specifically, one who has been tried and convicted of such a crime.
    • ✤ Hypernyms: criminal, convict (if convicted), culprit, malefactor
    • ✤ I doe defie thy coniurations:/And doe attach thee as a fellon heere.9
    • ✤ And therefore they are but like the Fellon that ſtandeth before the Judge, he quakes and trembles, and ſeems to repent most heartily; but the bottom of all is, the fear of the Halter, not of any deteſtation of the offence; as is evident, becauſe, let but this man have his liberty, and he vvill be a Thief, and ſo a Rogue still, vvhereas, if his mind vvas changed, he vvould be othervviſe.10
    • ✤ Hovv, vvith leſs reading than makes felons ‘ſcape,/Leſs human genius than God gives an ape,/Small thanks to France, and none to Rome or Greece,/A paſt, vamp’d, future, old, reviv’d, novv piece, […]11
    • ✤ If the diſguſting detail of the accumulated inſults vve have received, in vvhat vve have very properly called our “ſolicitation,” to a gang of felons and murderers, had been produced as a proof of the utter inefficacy of that mode of proceeding vvith that deſcription of perſons, I ſhould have nothing at all to object to it.12
    • ✤ Looking at the Jury and the turbulent audience, he might have thought that the usual order of things was reversed, and that the felons were trying the honest men.13
    • ✤ The felon is the logical extreme of the epicure and coxcomb. Selfish luxury is the end of both, though in one it is decorated with refinements, and in the other brutal. But my point now is, that this spirit is not American.14
  • (obsolete) An evil or wicked person.
    • ✤ But he, the King of Heav’n, obſcure on high,/Bar’d his red Arm, and launching from the Sky/His vvrithen Bolt, not ſhaking empty Smoak,/Dovvn to the deep Abyſs the flaming Felon ſtrook.15
    • ✤ The master’d felon press’d the ground,/And gasp’d beneath a mortal wound,/While o’er him stands the Bruce.16
  • (obsolete, by extension) A predatory animal regarded as cruel or wicked.

Noun

felon (plural felons)

  • (pathology, veterinary medicine) A small infected sore; an abscess, a boil.
    • (often specifically) A whitlow (“infection near or under a fingernail or toenail”).
      • ✤ He hev been away from home for a few days, since he’s had that felon upon his finger; for a’said, since I can’t work I’ll have a hollerday.17

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: fĕlʹən, IPA: /ˈfɛlən/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɛlən
  • Hyphenation: fel‧on

Etymology 1

The adjective is derived from Middle English feloun, felun (“base, wicked; hostile; of an animal: dangerous; of words: angry, harsh, slanderous; of things: dangerous, deadly; false, fraudulent; unlucky”) [and other forms],18 from Old French felon (“bad, evil, immoral”) (compare fel (“evil; despicable, vile”)), from Early Medieval Latin fellōnem; further etymology uncertain.

Doublet of fell (“of a strong and cruel nature; fierce; grim; ruthless, savage”).

Adjective sense 3 (“obtained through a felony”) is derived from the noun.

The noun is derived from Middle English feloun, felun (“ criminal, specifically one who has committed a felony, felon; cruel, hostile, violent, etc., person; deceiver; evildoer, monster, sinner; traitor; bold or fierce warrior; deceit, falseness; wickedness, wrongdoing; treachery ”) [and other forms],19 from feloun, felun (adjective): see above.

Etymology 2

From Middle English feloun, felone (“type of carbuncle or sore with pus; swelling on a hawk’s body”),20 possibly from Old French ﹡felon, from Latin fel (“bile, gall; bitterness; poison; venom”): see etymology 1.21

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1687, [John Dryden], “The Third Part”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 138: ↩

  2. 1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 187, lines 709–712: ↩

  3. 1736, [James] Thomson, Britain: Being the Fourth Part of Liberty, a Poem, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 83, lines 1188–1191: ↩

  4. 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: […] T[homas] Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 20: ↩

  5. 1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 61: ↩

  6. 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Truth”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 95: ↩

  7. 1814, Walter Scott, “[Miscellaneous Poems.] On the Massacre of Glencoe”, in The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, Esq. […], volume XII, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Company] for Arch[ibald] Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; and John Murray, published 1820, →OCLC, page 142: ↩

  8. 1631, Thomas Fuller, “Davids Hainous Sinne. Stanza 19.”, in Davids Hainous Sinne. Heartie Repentance. Heavie Punishment, London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC; republished London: Basil Montagu Pickering, […], 1869, →OCLC, signature [A7], verso: ↩

  9. c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], * […] Romeo and Juliet. […]* (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], signature K, verso: ↩

  10. 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, pages 215–216: ↩

  11. 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 13, lines 225–228: ↩

  12. 1797, Edmund Burke, “Letter III.”, in A Third Letter to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: […] F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […]; sold also by J[ohn] Hatchard, […], →OCLC, page 3: ↩

  13. 1859, Charles Dickens, “Triumph”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), pages 189–190: ↩

  14. 1878 March 30, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic. Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood and Company […], published 1878, →OCLC, pages 83–84: ↩

  15. 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 386, lines 801–804: ↩

  16. 1815, Walter Scott, “Canto Third”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F] or Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XXIX, page 119: ↩

  17. 1874, Thomas Hardy, “In the Sun—a Harbinger”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 31: ↩

  18. “felǒun, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  19. “felǒun, n. (1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  20. “felǒun, n. (2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  21. “felon, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “felon, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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