fret

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“
How could I ever do my work if a single discord is there to fret -- fret -- fret?

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Definitions (86)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (18)

  1. transitive verb To cause to be uneasy; vex: "fret thy soul with crosses and with cares” (Edmund Spenser).
  2. transitive verb To gnaw or wear away; erode.
  3. transitive verb To produce a hole or worn spot in; corrode. See Synonyms at chafe.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (44)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (8)

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Examples (50)

  • Don't fret, a temporary bridge will be built across the Chicago River to allow North Ave. to remain open to traffic traveling in both directions.
  • Don't fret, the vast majority of people don't know what a blog is all about - and more importantly, why it matters to them. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • The revised 302-dimple configuration (the original Zip featured 312 dimples) improves scuff-resistance by broadening the fret area between dimples.
  • Don't fret, our European breathren, your emo-ecomobile is here and we've got all the photos, and details below. —  Jalopnik
  • The selection of Alcatel-Lucent and L.M. Ericsson to build out Verizon Wireless 'Long-Term Evolution network wasn't too surprising and some competitors should not fret, according to industry analysts. —  RCR Wireless News >> Opinion
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

fret:   fretted ·  fretting ·  frets
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (14)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English freten, from Old English fretan, to devour; see ed- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Origin unknown.
  3. Middle English, interlaced work, from Old French frete.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (11)

  1. Early modern English also frette, and with orig. long vowel freet, freat; from Middle English freten (preterit fret, freet, frate, plural freten, freeten, past participle freten, fret), from Anglo-Saxon fretan (preterit fræt, plural frǣton, past participle freten), eat up, devour (hence frettan, preterit plural fretton, eat up), = Dutch vreten = Middle Low German vreten, Low German freten = Old High German frezzan, Middle High German vrezzen, German fressen (Swedish fräta, corrode, is borrowed) = Gothic (Moesogothic) fraïtan (preterit frēt, plural frētun), eat up, devour, from Gothic (Moesogothic) fra-, = Anglo-Saxon for-, English for-, etc., + Gothic (Moesogothic) itan = Anglo-Saxon etan, English eat, etc.: see for- and eat. Fret is thus equivalent to a syncopated form of for-eat, and the reg. modern form would be freat; the short vowel is perhaps due to the preterit fret (like ěat, preterit of eat) and the influence of the other words spelled fret. With fret of Anglo-Saxon origin is now thoroughly confused in form and sense another verb of different origin, namely, from Old French fretter, another form of froiter, French frotter = Provencal fretar = Italian frettare, rub, chafe, fray, fret, from Latin as if *frictare, freq. of fricare, past participle frictus, rub: see friction, and of. frot, frote.
  2. from fret, v.
  3. from Middle English fretten, from Anglo-Saxon fretwian, usually with æ, frætwian, frætwan, frættewian = Old Saxon fratahōn, adorn, ornament; cf. Gothic (Moesogothic) us-fratwjan, make wise (Greek σοφίζειν). Somewhat confused in meaning with fret, v. t.
  4. Middle English fret; from fret, v.
  5. from Old French frete, feminine, an iron band, a ferrule, frete, frette, f., a lozenge, plural frettes, a grating (later Spanish fretes, frets, in heraldry) (cf. fret, n., a hoop, collectively cross-bars, twigs for making baskets, cages, etc.), apparently syncopated from ferrette, n., Italian ferrata, ferriata, the iron grating of a window, an iron railing, from Middle Latin ferrata, an iron grating, from ferrare (French ferrer = Italian ferrare), bind with iron, from Latin ferrum, iron: see ferrous, farrier. Cf. fret.
  6. = Old French fretter, freter, cross, interlace; from the noun.
  7. from Middle English fretten, from Old French fretter, freter, ferter, strengthen, fasten, provide.
  8. Origin uncertain; perhaps, as Skeat suggests, a particular use of Old French frete, a ferrule (a bar): see fret, n.
  9. from fret, n.
  10. from Latin fretum, a strait, a sound; not connected with frith = firth.
  11. A form of freight, found in 16th-century editions of Chaucer, but not in Middle English manuscripts.
 

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/frɛt/
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