English

Etymology 1

Noun

1. A cloth or stuff made of matted fibres of wool, or wool and fur, fulled or wrought into a compact substance by rolling and pressure, with lees or size, without spinning or weaving.
   • Shakespeare, King Lear, act 4, scene 6:

     It were a delicate stratagem to shoe A troop of horse with felt.

2. A hat made of felt.
3. A skin or hide; a fell; a pelt.
   • 1707, John Mortimer, The whole art of husbandry:

     To know whether sheep are sound or not, see that the felt be loose.

Related terms

• felt grain: the grain of timber which is transverse to the annular rings or plates; the direction of the medullary rays in oak and some other timber. — Knight
• felt-tip pen
• coated felt sheet
• saturated felt

Verb

1. To make into felt, or a feltlike substance; to cause to adhere and mat together. — Sir Matthew Hale
2. To cover with, or as with, felt; as, to felt the cylinder of a steam engine.