noun
- Also called blood feud. a bitter, continuous hostility, especially between two families, clans, etc., often lasting for many years or generations.
- a bitter quarrel or contention: a feud between labor and management.
verb (used without object)
- to engage in a feud.
noun
- long and bitter hostility between two families, clans, or individuals; vendetta
- a quarrel or dispute
verb
- (intr) to take part in or carry on a feud
noun
- feudal law land held in return for service
1670s, from feud (n.). Related: Feuded; feuding.
c.1300, fede “enmity, hatred, hostility,” northern English and Scottish; perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word or else from Old French fede, from Old High German fehida “contention, quarrel, feud,” from Proto-Germanic *faihitha noun of state from adj. *faiho- (cf. Old English fæhð “enmity,” fah “hostile;” German Fehde “feud;” Old Frisian feithe “enmity;” see foe). Sense of “vendetta” is early 15c. Alteration of spelling in 16c. is unexplained.