felt
1 Americanverb
noun
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felts
plural
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a nonwoven fabric of wool, fur, or hair, matted together by heat, moisture, and great pressure.
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any article made of this material, as a hat.
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any matted fabric or material, as a mat of asbestos fibers, rags, or old paper, used for insulation and in construction.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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to make into felt; mat or press together.
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to cover with or as with felt.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a matted fabric of wool, hair, etc, made by working the fibres together under pressure or by heat or chemical action
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( as modifier )
a felt hat
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any material, such as asbestos, made by a similar process of matting
verb
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(tr) to make into or cover with felt
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(intr) to become matted
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of felt
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English; cognate with German Filz; see filter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He felt Morocco offered no opportunities to young, educated people like him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
For now, its comeback exists mostly as a promise – a reminder of a time when social media felt a little less polished and a lot more personal.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Tens of thousands of young Moroccans felt the same.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
It actually happened this week, after what felt like 47 years of campaigning.
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026
She felt something worse than bad after she’d scanned up and down the menu several times, feeling as if everybody behind her was impatient, even though nobody was yelling at her to move.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The same colors appeared on my son’s palms, as he was most taken with the dynamics of uncapping and recapping the felts.
From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2017
May 15 is Straw Hat Day, when people used to toss off their winter felts and don spring hats.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2017
The exterior is cold and raw, but in the rooms the industrial feel is softened with grey felts and fabrics.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2016
All his I thinks, I believeds and I felts could sound self-effacing.
From Newsweek ● Apr. 10, 2015
Behind her, the gars of Savenaye, grasping with angry clutch, some a new musket, others an ancient straightened scythe, gaze fiercely on the scene from under their broad felts.
From The Light of Scarthey by Castle, Egerton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
