Definition of feeling

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feel·ing    (flng) KEY 

NOUN:

1. 1. The sensation involving perception by touch.
   2. A sensation experienced through touch.
   3. A physical sensation: a feeling of warmth.
2. An affective state of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments, or desires: experienced a feeling of excitement.
3. An awareness or impression: He had the feeling that he was being followed.
4. 1. An emotional state or disposition; an emotion: expressed deep feeling.
   2. A tender emotion; a fondness.
5. 1. Capacity to experience the higher emotions; sensitivity; sensibility: a man of feeling.
   2. feelings Susceptibility to emotional response; sensibilities: The child's feelings are easily hurt.
6. Opinion based more on emotion than on reason; sentiment.
7. A general impression conveyed by a person, place, or thing: The stuffy air gave one the feeling of being in a tomb.
8. 1. Appreciative regard or understanding: a feeling for propriety.
   2. Intuitive awareness or aptitude; a feel: has a feeling for language.

ADJECTIVE:

1. Having the ability to react or feel emotionally; sentient; sensitive.
2. Easily moved emotionally; sympathetic: a feeling heart.
3. Expressive of sensibility or emotion: a feeling glance.

OTHER FORMS:
feeling·ly(Adverb)

SYNONYMS:
feeling, emotion, passion, sentiment

These nouns refer to complex and usually strong subjective human response. Although feeling and emotion are sometimes interchangeable, feeling is the more general and neutral: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity" (William Wordsworth). Emotion often implies the presence of excitement or agitation: "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion" (T.S. Eliot). Passion is intense, compelling emotion: "They seemed like ungoverned children inflamed with the fiercest passions of men" (Francis Parkman). Sentiment often applies to a thought or opinion arising from or influenced by emotion: We expressed our sentiments about the government's policies. The word can also refer to delicate, sensitive, or higher or more refined feelings: "The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in any people" (Walter Bagehot). See also Synonyms at opinion.