What does feaze mean?
Feaze is a small but storied English verb with two distinct lives. In everyday, largely British dialectal use, it means to vex, worry, or pester someone persistently — a person can be "half feazed to death" by nagging troubles or tiresome questions. In nautical English it has a second sense: to unravel or fray the untwisted end of a rope, with "feazings" naming the frayed strands themselves. Today the word is rare, surviving chiefly through its variant "faze," which dropped the medial vowel and became the standard modern term for disconcerting or unnerving someone. Readers will most often meet "feaze" in older fiction, dialect writing, or seamanship manuals rather than current prose. Its charm lies in this double heritage — one foot in domestic irritation, the other in the rigging of sailing ships — making it a rewarding find for anyone interested in how words wear down, shift shape, and occasionally unravel like the ropes they describe.
To vex, worry, or irritate someone persistently.
"Her endless second-guessing began to feaze even the most patient members of the committee."
Now rare; chiefly found in dialect and older literature. The standard modern descendant is "faze."
(Nautical) To unravel or fray the untwisted end of a rope.
"The mooring line had feazed badly at the end and needed to be whipped before use."
Chiefly encountered in seamanship contexts, especially via the noun "feazings."
Sailors once 'feazed' the ends of their ropes to stop them unravelling — the very same word your grandmother used when you 'feazed' her half to death.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feaze
The vexing sense of "feaze" descends from Middle English, traceable to the Old English verb fēsian, meaning to drive away, urge on, or harass, and it developed in early modern English into both the dialectal "feaze" and the shortened form "faze," which became standard American and British usage for "disconcert." The nautical sense, referring to the fraying of rope's ends, appeared in maritime vocabulary by the sixteenth century; its origin is uncertain, though it may be connected to the same Germanic stock or may have arisen independently among sailors. Beyond "faze," few secure cognates survive in modern English.
Related word forms
How feaze is actually used
In its 'vex' sense, feaze is now largely confined to British dialect and older literature, and it survives mostly through its variant form "faze." In nautical contexts it appears mainly in the noun form "feazings." Because of the near-identical spelling of "faze," modern writers should avoid "feaze" unless deliberately archaic or technical.
Easily confused with feaze
"Faze" means to disconcert or daunt someone and is the common modern word, while "feaze" is an older, rarer verb meaning to vex persistently or, at sea, to unravel a rope's end.
"Freeze" means to solidify with cold or stop moving, whereas "feaze" means to vex or fray despite their similar spelling.