feel

To feel is to have something happening inside you or against your skin — cold, tired, happy, a stone in your shoe. You feel the sun on your face, you feel sick on a boat, you feel better after a long sleep.

It also works outwards: you feel a fabric to see how soft it is, or feel around in a dark bag for your keys. A quieter use turns the direction round, so the thing does the feeling to you — the room feels cold, the plan feels wrong, it feels like rain. Feel like plus a noun or an -ing form means want: I feel like a cup of tea, I don't feel like going out. As a noun it is the quality of a surface or the sense you get of a place, the feel of old paper, the feel of a town. Two things to watch: an adjective follows, so I feel bad rather than I feel badly, and the past is felt.

Phrases it lives in

• feel free — you are welcome to do it
• feel like doing something — want to do it
• get a feel for something — learn how it works through experience