felt

1 of 3

noun

ˈfelt 

1

a

: a cloth made of wool and fur often mixed with natural or synthetic fibers through the action of heat, moisture, chemicals, and pressure

b

: a firm woven cloth of wool or cotton heavily napped and shrunk

2

: an article made of felt

3

: a material resembling felt: such as

a

: a heavy paper of organic or asbestos fibers impregnated with asphalt and used in building construction

b

: semirigid pressed fiber insulation used in building

feltlike adjective

felt

2 of 3

verb

felted; felting; felts

transitive verb

1

: to make out of or cover with felt

2

: to cause to adhere and mat together

3

: to make into felt or a similar substance

felt

3 of 3

past tense and past participle of feel

Examples of felt in a Sentence

Noun

She made her son's costume from scraps of felt.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Adhere the felt to the back of the helmet with double-sided tape. —Kimberly Stoney, Parents, 21 Mar. 2024

Once a rough shape has been created, the felt is heated and steamed so that Mr. Mejia can stretch and shape it into the precise form. —Lisa Richwine, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English felt, felte, feelte, going back to Old English felt (only in glosses), going back to West Germanic *felt-, *filt-, probably from a neuter s-stem paradigm *feltaz-/*filtiz- (whence also Old Saxon filt "coarse woolen cloth, blanket," Middle Dutch vilt, vilte, velt "felt," Old High German filz "coarse woolen cloth, felt cover"), of uncertain origin

Note: Germanic *feltaz- "felt" has traditionally been taken as an e-grade ablaut derivative corresponding to o-grade in Old High German falzan, felzan "to inset grooves in a sword blade," falzunga "joint, juncture," continued in Middle High German by givalzen "damaged, knocked or chopped off," velzen "to inlay (gemstones)," valz "mating of birds, channel in a sword blade, middle of a double-edged blade (where two pieces are joined), groove separating the back and cover of a bookbinding." Outside German the only apparent Germanic verbal cognate is modern East Frisian falten "to break down flax fiber," and falte "tool used to soften flax." (See A. Lloyd and R. Lühr, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Band 3, pp. 44-45.) The original meaning of this verb is taken to have been "to strike, beat," with beating taken to be part of the felt-making process. Another likely nominal derivative of this verb is contained in a word for "anvil" in West Germanic: Old English anfealt, Old High German anafalz (with *falt-) alongside Old English anefilt, anefilte, Middle Dutch aenvilte, anevilte (with *feltja-) (see anvil). Germanic *felt-, *falt- has been further connected to a presumed Indo-European *pel-d-, *pol-d-, from which also allegedly descends Latin pellere "to beat against, push, strike." However, this reconstruction of pellere has more recently been disfavored on both phonetic and semantic grounds—see pulse entry 1. Also of relevance to Germanic *feltaz- is the Slavic etymon represented by Old Russian/Russian Church Slavic pŭlstĭ "felt, felt rug," Russian polst' "felt" (now largely superseded by vójlok, of Turkic origin), Serbian (regional) pȕst, Slovene pôlst, Czech plst, Polish pilść; for pre-Slavic the etymon has been reconstructed as *pl̥d-ti "act of pounding, something pounded" (see C. Michiel Driessen, "Towards an Indo-European Term for 'felt'," Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 32 [2004], pp. 25-42). Though the relationship is suggestive, a common etymon for "felt" and definite connections to an Indo-European verbal root are still lacking. See also pileus.

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing felt

• felt sorry for
• felt-tip
• felt-tipped
• felt-tip pen
• make one's presence felt/heard/known

Kids Definition

felt

1 of 3 noun

ˈfelt 

: a heavy material made by rolling and pressing fibers (as of wool) together

felt

2 of 3 verb

1

: to mat together

2

: to make into felt

felt

3 of 3

past of feel

Medical Definition

felt

past and past part of feel