DEADLY FEUD, in English law-books, a profession of irreconcilable hostility, till a person is revenged by the death of his enemy. The word feud is derived from the German feud, which, as Hottoman observes, signifies modo bellum, modo capitales inimicitiae. Such enmity and revenge were allowed by the law in the time of the Saxons. If any man was killed, and a pecuniary satisfaction was not made to the kindred, it became lawful for them to take up arms and revenge themselves on the murderer; which was called deadly feud.