Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Fealty

Fe′al·ty (fē′al·ty̆), n. [OE. faute, OF. fauté, fealté, feelé, feelteit, fr. L. fidelitas, fr. fidelis faithful. See Feal, and cf. Fidelity.] 1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord; the special oath by which this obligation was assumed; fidelity to a superior power, or to a government; loyality. It is no longer the practice to exact the performance of fealty, as a feudal obligation. Wharton (Law Dict. ). Tomlins.

2. Fidelity; constancy; faithfulness, as of a friend to a friend, or of a wife to her husband.

He should maintain fealty to God. I. Taylor.

Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps The fealty of our friends. tennyson.

Swore fealty to the new government. Macaulay.

☞ Fealty is distinguished from homage, which is an acknowledgment of tenure, while fealty implies an oath. See Homage. Wharton.

Syn. — Homage; loyality; fidelity; constancy.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.