mailed fist

noun

: a threat of armed or overbearing force

Word History

Etymology

mail entry 3 + -ed entry 1; initially as translation of German gepanzerte Faust

Note: The collocation mailed fist was employed as a translation of the German phrase in December, 1897. It was used by Kaiser Wilhelm II in an address to his brother Prince Heinrich, who was departing for China to augment a military response to the murder of two Christian missionaries (leading to the German seizure of Chinese territory on the Shandong peninsula).

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mailed fist

• blastocyst
• bolshevist
• coexist
• egoist
• hedonist
• jihadist
• nativist
• oculist
• reminisced
• trotskyist
• assist
• blacklist