Meanings
plural fewters · alternative feuter
- A support or holder for a spear, attached to a saddle or breastplate.
From heaven the spear-light vertical in its fewter.
1994, Jeanette Winterson, Art & Lies
present singular third person fewters · participle present fewtering · participle past fewtered · past fewtered · alternative feuter
- transitiveTo rest (a spear) in its fewter.
His speare he feutred, and at him it bore, / But with no better fortune than the rest afore.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC1 more example
Without further words, the two gentlemen retreated to the opposite ends of the clearing, fewtered their spears, and prepared to hurtle together in the preliminary charge.
1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter 7, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone)
Origin
- Medieval Latinfiltrum
- Old Frenchfeutre
- Middle Englishfeuter
- Englishfewter
From Middle English feuter, fewtre, from Old French feutre, from Medieval Latin filtrum, of Germanic origin. Doublet of filter.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Medieval Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
fewter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewter
“fewter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewter. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fewter,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fewter.
Source: fewter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.