fang1
[fang]
- one of the long, sharp, hollow or grooved teeth of a venomous snake by which poison is injected.
- a canine tooth.
- a tooth resembling a dog's.
- the root of a tooth.
- one of the chelicerae of a spider.
- a pointed, tapering part of a thing.
- Machinery. the tang of a tool.
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Origin of fang1
before 1050; Middle English, Old English: something caught; cognate with German Fang capture, booty, Old Norse fang a grasp, hold. See fang2
fang2
[fang]
- to seize; grab.
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Origin of fang2
before 900; Middle English fangen to seize, catch; cognate with Old Saxon fangan, German fangen, variant of proto-Germanic *fanhan-, whence Old English fōn, cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic fāhan, Old Norse fā; akin to Old English gefangian to fasten
Fang
[fang, fahng, fahn]
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Also Fan.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for fang
Contemporary Examples
But, as Fang continued, the administration quickly evolved away from that position.
The last several years I called my ex-husbands “Fang” on stage, too.
In 1989, Fang Lizhi wrote an open letter to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping demanding the release of political prisoners.
Fang sought refuge along with his family at the U.S. embassy and President George H.W. Bush agreed to grant him asylum.
Fang became a professor at the University of Arizona, where he taught until his death in 2012.
Historical Examples
First he has to be broken in, to learn "the law of club and fang."
"It's a wise fellow who wrenches forth the serpent's fang," shouted he.
By this time tomorrow, I hope that we will be forever done with the law of claw and fang.
The Galaxy PrimesEdward Elmer Smith
She's done for at lasht—an' blade to fang, in open foight ye've knoifed her!
The PromiseJames B. Hendryx
They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.
The Call of the WildJack London
fang1
- the long pointed hollow or grooved tooth of a venomous snake through which venom is injected
- any large pointed tooth, esp the canine or carnassial tooth of a carnivorous mammal
- the root of a tooth
- (usually plural) British informal toothclean your fangs
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Word Origin
Old English fang what is caught, prey; related to Old Norse fang a grip, German Fang booty
fang2
- to drive at great speed
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- an act or instance of driving in such a waywe took the car for a fang
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Word Origin
C20: from Juan Manuel Fangio
Fang
- plural Fangs or Fang a member of a Negroid people of W Africa, living chiefly in the rain forests of Gabon and Rio Muni: noted for their use of iron and copper money and for their sculpture
- the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for fang
n.
Old English fang "prey, spoils, plunder, booty; a seizing or taking," from gefangen, past participle of fon "seize, take, capture," from Proto-Germanic *fango- (cf. Old Frisian fangia, Middle Dutch and Dutch vangen, Old Norse fanga, German fangen, Gothic fahan), from PIE root *pag- "to make firm, fix;" connected to Latin pax (genitive pacis) "peace" (see pact).
The sense of "canine tooth" (1550s) probably developed from Old English fengtoð, literally "catching- or grasping-tooth." Transferred to the venom tooth of a serpent, etc., by 1800.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fang
[făng]
- A long, pointed tooth in vertebrate animals or a similar structure in spiders, used to seize prey and sometimes to inject venom. The fangs of a poisonous snake, for example, have a hollow groove through which venom flows.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.