fease

Back-formation from feasance.

fease (third-person singular simple present feases, present participle feasing, simple past and past participle feased)

1. (obsolete) to execute (an action, condition, obligation, etc.)

From Middle English fesen (“to drive, incite, put into action; frighten, terrify, prosecute, punish”), from Old English fēsan, fȳsan (“to hasten, impel”), from Proto-Germanic *funsijaną (“to make ready”).

• faise, feaze, feese, feize, phease, pheese, pheeze, vaise, vaze, vease, veass, veese, veze[1] (dialectal)

fease (third-person singular simple present feases, present participle feasing, simple past and past participle feased)

1. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To drive; drive away; put to flight; dissipate
2. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To cause to swing about
3. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To swing about (in the wind); to flare (as a candle)
4. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To disturb; annoy; inconvenience; fret; worry
5. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To beat; chastise; also, to humble; harass

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ainsworth to this entry?)

6. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To hurry; pant; run up and down
7. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To fetch
8. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a rope.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)