feeling

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Emotional sensation

See also touch, taste

Nouns

1. feeling, sensation, sentience, emotion, sensibility, sensitivity; endurance, tolerance, sufferance, experience, response; vibrations; impression, inspiration; warmth, glow, unction, gusto, vehemence; fervor, fervency, fire; heart, breast; heartiness, cordiality; earnestness, eagerness; ardor, élan, zeal, passion, enthusiasm, verve, furor, fanaticism; excitement; excitability, ecstasy; pleasure. Informal, vibes. Slang, gut reaction.

2. tenderness, affection, fondness, soft place in the heart; sympathy, empathy, concern, caring; pity, pathos, sympathy, love.

3. (symptom of emotion) blush, suffusion, flush; tingling, thrill; turn, shock (see surprise); agitation, quiver, throb[bing]; heartstrings, heartthrob; lump in the throat.

4. emotionalism, sensationalism; dramatics, theatrics, histrionics; sob story.

5. bad or hard feelings, hostility, animosity (see hate).

6. sentimentalist. Informal, softie.

Verbs

1. feel, receive an impression; be impressed with; entertain, harbor, or cherish feeling; respond; catch fire, catch infection; enter the spirit of.

2. swell, glow, warm, flush, blush, change color, mantle; turn color, turnpale, turn black in the face; tingle, thrill, heave, pant, throb, palpitate, gopitapat, tremble, quiver, flutter, twitter; wear one's heart on one's sleeve, take to heart; shake, be agitated, be excited, look blue, look black; wince, draw a deep breath. Informal, blow off steam. See agitation.

3. move, appeal to the emotions, touch the right chord.

Adjectives

1. feeling, sentient, sensuous; sensorial, sensory; emotive, emotional; tactile, tactual, tangible, palpable.

2. (causing sharp emotion) warm, quick, lively, smart, strong, sharp, acute, cutting, piercing, incisive; keen, exquisite, intense, razor-sharp; trenchant, pungent, racy, piquant, poignant, caustic.

3. (causing deep emotion) impressive, deep, profound, indelible; pervading, penetrating, absorbing; deep-felt, heartfelt; swelling, soul-stirring, electric, thrilling, rapturous, ecstatic.

4. (expressing emotion) earnest, wistful, eager, breathless; fervent, fervid; gushing, passionate, warmhearted, hearty, cordial, sincere, devout, zealous, enthusiastic, flowing, ardent, burning, consumed with, red-hot, fiery, flaming; seething, boiling; rabid, raving, feverish, delirious, fanatical, hysterical; impetuous, excitable. Informal, gung ho.

5. impressed by, moved by, touched, affected, seized by, imbued with; devoured by; wrought up, excited, struck all of a heap; mistyor dewy-eyed; rapt, in a quiver, enraptured.

Adverbs — feelingly, with feeling, heart and soul, with all one's heart, from the bottom of one's heart, at heart, con amore, con brio, heartily, devoutly, head over heels.

Quotations — The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of (Pascal), The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews (W. H. Auden), Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment (Norman Mailer), If you want me to weep, you must first feel grief yourself (Horace).

Antonyms, see insensibility.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The sense of touch]

Syn. tactile sense, touch, tactility, digital sensibility, perception, tangibility.

2. [State of the body, or of a part of it]

Syn. sense, sensation, consciousness, awareness, impression, sensibility, feel, sensitiveness, sensory response, perception, perceptiveness, perceptivity, susceptibility, receptivity, responsiveness, excitability, excitement, motility, activity, impressibility, titillation, enjoyment, sensuality, voluptuousness, reaction, shrinking, motor response, synesthesia, galvanism, reflex, contractibility, innervation, excitation.

Ant. numbness, anesthesia, insensibility.

3. [A personal reaction]

Syn. opinion, sentiment, belief, outlook; see attitude 2 , belief 1 .

4. [Sensitivity]

Syn. emotion, passion, sentiment, affect, tenderness, discrimination, delicacy, discernment, sentimentality, taste, refinement, capacity, faculty, judgment, affection, sympathy, empathy, compassion, pity, sensibility, susceptivity, intuition, keenness, sharpness, spirit, esprit (French), soul, heart, pathos, ardor, fervor, warmth, aesthetic sense, appreciation, response; see also emotion .

Ant. indifference, apathy, coldness, insensitivity.

5. [A hunch]

Syn. premonition, foreboding, inkling, gut reaction*; see hunch 2 .

6. [A general emotional quality]

Syn. air, atmosphere, mood; see character 1 , characteristic .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. sensation experience, perception, comprehension, understanding, consciousness, awareness, impression, response, reaction, emotion, sentiment.

2. emotion passion, sensitivity, sympathy, depth, ardor, fervor, enthusiasm, zest, soul, heart, spirit, tenderness. The emotion which drives the intelligence forward in spite of obstacles.''— Henry Bergson. The unconscious conversion ofinstinctual impulses.''—Carl Jung.

3. opinion point of view, idea, sentiment, impression, sense, inclination, conviction, belief, evaluation, outlook, conception.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. A particular sensation conveyed by means of physical contact: feel, touch. See TOUCH. 2. The faculty or ability to perceive tactile stimulation: feel, tactility, touch. See TOUCH. 3. An act of touching: palpation, touch. See TOUCH. 4. The capacity for or an act of responding to a stimulus: sensation, sense, sensibility, sensitiveness, sensitivity, sentiment. See AWARENESS. 5. A general cast of mind with regard to something: attitude, sentiment. See ATTITUDE. 6. A complex and usually strong subjective response, such as love or hate: affection, affectivity, emotion, sentiment. See FEELINGS. 7. The quality or condition of being emotionally and intuitively sensitive: sensibility, sensitiveness, sensitivity. See AWARENESS. 8. Something believed or accepted as true by a person: belief, conviction, idea, mind, notion, opinion, persuasion, position, sentiment, view. See OPINION. 9. A general impression produced by a predominant quality or characteristic: air, ambiance, atmosphere, aura, feel, mood, smell, tone. See BE. 10. Intuitive cognition: hunch, idea, impression, intuition, suspicion. See THOUGHTS. II adjective 1. Cognizant of and comprehending the needs, feelings, problems, and views of others: empathetic, empathic, sympathetic, understanding. See UNDERSTAND. 2. Readily stirred by emotion: emotional, sensitive. See FEELINGS.