What does feazed mean?
"Feazed" is a largely historical English word drawn from the world of sailing and ropework. To feaze is to unravel or fray — specifically, for the strands at the end of a rope to work loose and splay apart through wear, chafing, or cutting. Sailors of earlier centuries took this seriously, because a feazed rope-end was harder to handle and prone to further damage, so they would bind or whip the tip to keep it intact. The word appears most often in old nautical manuals, logbooks, and sea fiction, and today it survives chiefly as a curiosity for readers of maritime history rather than as living vocabulary. Anyone encountering it should read it simply as an old-fashioned way of saying that a rope has frayed at its end.
verbTo unravel or fray at the end, as the strands of a rope do when worn or cut. It is an archaic nautical term, now rarely used.
- (of a rope) to become unraveled or frayed at the end.
"The hawser had feazed so badly at the end that the sailors had to whip it before it could pass through the block."
"The old mooring line had feazed into a wild tuft of loose fibres."
"Left untended, the cable quickly feazed where it scraped against the rough hull."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feazed
"Feaze" is recorded in English from around the sixteenth century, chiefly in nautical contexts. Its origin is uncertain; lexicographers have suggested connections with related terms describing fraying or beating, but no definitive source language has been established. Because of this uncertainty, only the word's long-standing association with seafaring and ropework can be stated with confidence.
Related word forms
How feazed is actually used
This is an obsolete-to-archaic term found mainly in historical maritime writing; modern seamanship texts use "fray" or "unravel" instead.
Easily confused with feazed
"Phased" refers to carrying out something in stages, while "feazed" describes rope ends becoming unraveled and frayed.