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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Female rhymes

Female \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.

    Note: 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 Filixf[ae]mina), growing in many countries; lady fern.

    Note: 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.

    Usage: 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.