Fe"male (?), n. [OE. femel,
femal, F. femelle, fr. L. femella, dim. of
femina woman. See Feminine.] 1. An
individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in
a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova.
The male and female of each living
thing.
Drayton.
2. (Bot.) A plant which produces only
that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into
fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate
plant.
Fe"male, a. 1.
Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young,
or (in a wider sense) which produces ova; not male.
As patient as the female dove
When that her golden couplets are disclosed.
Shak.
2. Belonging to an individual of the female
sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female
tenderness. "Female usurpation.'b8 Milton.
To the generous decision of a female mind, we
owe the discovery of America.
Belknap.
3. (Bot.) Having pistils and no
stamens; pistillate; or, in cryptogamous plants, capable of receiving
fertilization.
Female rhymes (Pros.), double rhymes, or
rhymes (called in French feminine rhymes because they end in
e weak, or feminine) in which two syllables, an
accented and an unaccented one, correspond at the end of each
line.
☞ A rhyme, in which the final syllables only agree
(strain, complain) is called a male rhyme; one in which
the two final syllables of each verse agree, the last being short
(motion, ocean), is called female. Brande &
C.
-- Female screw, the spiral-threaded cavity into
which another, or male, screw turns. Nicholson. --
Female fern (Bot.), a common species of fern
with large decompound fronds (Asplenium Filixfæmina),
growing in many countries; lady fern.
☞ The names male fern and female fern were
anciently given to two common ferns; but it is now understood that
neither has any sexual character.
Syn. -- Female, Feminine. We apply
female to the sex or individual, as opposed to male;
also, to the distinctive belongings of women; as, female
dress, female form, female character, etc.;
feminine, to things appropriate to, or affected by, women; as,
feminine studies, employments, accomplishments, etc.
"Female applies to sex rather than gender, and is a
physiological rather than a grammatical term. Feminine applies
to gender rather than sex, and is grammatical rather than
physiological." Latham.