feat

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman fet (“action, deed”), from Old French fait, from Latin factum, from facere (“to do, to make”).

• IPA^(key): /fiːt/
• Homophone: feet
• Rhymes: -iːt

feat (plural feats)

1. A relatively rare or difficult accomplishment.
   • 2013 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4)”, in BBC‎:

     Bradford may have lost on the night but they stubbornly protected a 3-1 first-leg advantage to emulate a feat last achieved by Rochdale in 1962.

• no small feat
• no mean feat

feat (comparative feater, superlative featest)

1. (archaic) Dexterous in movements or service; skilful; neat; pretty.
   • 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, “The Shepheards Tale,” p. 17,

     […] she set downe her period on the face of Alexis, thinking he was the fairest, and the featest swaine of all the rest.

   • 1593, Thomas Lodge, Phillis, London: John Busbie, “Induction,”

     Oh you high sp’rited Paragons of witte,

     That flye to fame beyond our earthly pitch,

     Whose sence is sound, whose words are feat and fitte,

     Able to make the coyest eare to itch:

     Shroud with your mighty wings that mount so well,

     These little loues, new crept from out the shell.

   • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act V, Scene 5,

     […] never master had

     A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,

     So tender over his occasions, true,

     So feat, so nurse-like:

   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, Scene 1,

     And look how well my garments sit upon me;

     Much feater than before:

feat (third-person singular simple present feats, present participle feating, simple past and past participle feated)

1. (obsolete) To form; to fashion.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act I, Scene 1,

     […] most praised, most loved,

     A sample to the youngest, to the more mature

     A glass that feated them, and to the graver

     A child that guided dotards;

• EFTA, Fate, TAFE, TFAE, fate, feta