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In certain parts of the United States, most notably the South, the noun feist (pronounced to rhyme with heist) refers to a small dog used in hunting small game animals (such as squirrels). Also spelled fice or fyce, it comes from an obsolete term, "fisting hound," that derived from another obsolete term, fist, a verb that once meant "to break wind." The term feisty has come a long way from its flatulent origin, but its small-dog association still seems relevant: the term conveys the spunk and determination that one may associate with a dog that manages to make its presence known (either through its bark or its bite) despite its small size.
Synonyms
Examples of feisty in a Sentence
Wynonna Judd, quoted in Rolling Stone, 8-22 July 1993
Humorist Cynthia Heimel never plays it safe, bless her feisty little heart. She's outrageous and hilarious, daring to say exactly what she and millions of other women really think …
—Donna Seaman, Booklist, 15 May 1993
… Milwaukee was the last major industrial city to elect a Socialist mayor—Frank P. Zeidler, a feisty octogenarian who teaches today at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee …
—Charles P. Pierce, Village Voice, 10 Mar. 1992
She never tired of hearing anecdotes from her childhood, and she particularly liked to hear how feisty she had been …
—Lorene Cary, Black Ice, 1991
The novel features a feisty heroine.
Even her opponents admire her feisty spirit.
Annika Pham, Variety, 7 Apr. 2024
Fingers point to feisty single mom/Irish migrant Rose (Buckley), a pariah hardly adverse to cursing.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024
But while the setting was ideal, the conditions were not: The temperature reached nearly 100 degrees that day and lots of feisty bees were buzzing around the chefs’ workstations, which were not tented under the blazing sun.
—Rachel Bernhard, Journal Sentinel, 3 Apr. 2024
President Biden’s feisty State of the Union address Thursday saw a substantial lift in viewing compared with last year’s speech.
—Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024
Hoosiers ruffle Gamecocks’ feathers in women’s Sweet 16 No. 4 Indiana whittled a 22-point South Carolina lead down to two with 1:08 left on Friday night, but the No. 1 Gamecocks used tight defense to hold off the feisty Hoosiers and advance to the Elite Eight.
—Kathryn Sheldon, Sacramento Bee, 31 Mar. 2024
Maddie went as Bubbles, with little sister Ivey as Blossom and mom as the feisty Buttercup, all smiling as the family's black cat joined them for a picture.
—Jen Juneau, Peoplemag, 25 Mar. 2024
She’s wrapped in a gauzy shawl and curled up barefoot on a couch, far more subdued and cordial in person than her feisty persona, both onscreen and online, might suggest.
—Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2024
After losing to Mexico in group play, the Americans had to out-physical a feisty Colombia, then beat Canada in a monsoon — twice blowing one-goal leads before winning on penalty kicks — just to reach the final against Brazil.
—Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'feisty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Feisty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feisty. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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