Fe"male (?), n. [OE. femel, femal, F. femelle, fr. L. femella, dim. of femina woman. See Feminine.] 1. An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova.
The male and female of each living thing.
Drayton.
2. Bot. A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913. | 
