Fret

Pronunciation

• IPA: /frÉ›t/
• Rhymes: -É›t

From Middle English freten, from Old English fretan ("to eat up, devour"), from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną ("to devour"), corresponding to - + eat. Cognate with Dutch vreten (""), fretten ("to devour, hog, wolf"), Low German freten ("to eat up"), German fressen ("to devour, gobble up, guzzle"), Danish fråse ("to gorge"), Swedish fräta ("to eat away, corrode, fret"), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, ""), 𐍆𐍂𐌰-𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fra-itan, "to devour").

Full definition of fret

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete/poetic) To devour, consume; eat.
• unknown date— Piers Ploughman.Adam freet of that fruit, And forsook the love of our Lord.
• WisemanMany wheals arose, and fretted one into another with great excoriation.
2. (transitive and intransitive) To gnaw, consume, eat away.
3. (intransitive) To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.A wristband frets on the edges.
4. (transitive) To cut through with fretsaw, create fretwork.
5. (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry.
6. (intransitive) To worry or be anxious.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 5, Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
7. To be vexed; to be chafed or irritated; to be angry; to utter peevish expressions.
• DrydenHe frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground.
8. To make rough, agitate, or disturb; to cause to ripple.to fret the surface of water
9. To be agitated; to be in violent commotion; to rankle.Rancour frets in the malignant breast.
10. (music) To press down the string behind a fret.
11. To ornament with raised work; to variegate; to diversify.
• Spenserwhose skirt with gold was fretted all about
• ShakespeareYon grey lines,
  That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

Noun

1. The agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
2. Agitation of mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.He keeps his mind in a continual fret.
• PopeYet then did Dennis rave in furious fret.
3. Herpes; tetter.
4. (mining, in the plural) The worn sides of river banks, where ores, or stones containing them, accumulate by being washed down from the hills, and thus indicate to the miners the locality of the veins.

Middle English < Old French, from the verb freter, probably from the Latin frictō, frequentive of fricō ("I rub"). See friction.

Noun

1. (music) One of the pieces of metal/wood/plastic across the neck of a guitar or other musical instrument that marks note positions for fingering.
2. An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines (often in relief).
• EvelynHis lady's cabinet is adorned on the fret, ceiling, and chimney-piece with ... carving.
3. (heraldiccharge) A saltire interlaced with a mascle.

Derived terms

• fretboard

From Latin fretum ("strait, channel")

Noun

1. A strait; channel.

Related terms

• fretum
• transfrete

Unknown

Noun

1. (dialectal, North East England) A fog or mist at sea or coming inland from the sea.

Anagrams

• reft