Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous tailless aquatic, semiaquatic, or terrestrial amphibians of the order Anura, characteristically having a short vertebral column, a large head, long hind legs used for leaping, and a tadpole stage as larvae.
  • noun Any of various usually aquatic members of this order having smoother skin and longer hind legs than the toads.
  • noun A wedge-shaped, horny prominence in the sole of a horse's hoof.
  • noun A loop fastened to a belt to hold a tool or weapon.
  • noun An ornamental looped braid or cord with a button or knot for fastening the front of a garment.
  • noun A device on intersecting railroad tracks that permits wheels to cross the junction.
  • noun A spiked or perforated device used to support stems in a flower arrangement.
  • noun The nut of a violin bow.
  • noun Informal Hoarseness or phlegm in the throat.
  • noun Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a person of French birth or descent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An attachment to the frame of a loom, against which an iron finger strikes, stopping the machine should the shuttle fail to make timely passage through the warp.
  • noun In lumbering: The junction of the two branches of a flume.
  • noun A timber placed at the mouth of a slide to direct the discharge of the logs.
  • noun A fastening for the front of a coat or any similar garment, often made ornamental by the use of embroidery or braiding, and consisting generally of a spindle-shaped button, attached by a cord, and corresponding with a loop on the opposite side of the garment.
  • noun The loop of the scabbard of a bayonet or sword.
  • noun In a carriage, an ornamental piece of wood covered with silk or worsted woven to match the carriage-fringe.
  • noun In a harness, a pear-shaped ornament of patent leather, finished at the narrow end with a ring.
  • noun The presence of mucus on the vocal cords, causing hoarseness and an inclination to cough or hawk: usually called frog in the throat.
  • noun Aphthæ in children.
  • noun A batrachian of the family Ranidæ (which see), as the common British Rana temporaria, or its North American representative, R. sylvatica.
  • To hunt for frogs; catch frogs.
  • noun In farriery, an elastic horny substance that grows in the middle of the sole of a horse's foot, dividing into two branches, and running toward the heel in the form of a fork.
  • noun A section of a rail, or of several rails combined, at a point where two railway lines cross, or at the point of a switch from a line to a siding or to another line. When used at a crossing to unite the rails, it is called a cross-frog.
  • noun Same as frock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To ornament or fasten (a coat, etc.) with trogs. See frog, n., 4.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An amphibious animal of the genus Rana and related genera, of many species. Frogs swim rapidly, and take long leaps on land. Many of the species utter loud notes in the springtime.
  • noun (Anat.) The triangular prominence of the hoof, in the middle of the sole of the foot of the horse, and other animals; the fourchette.
  • noun (Railroads) A supporting plate having raised ribs that form continuations of the rails, to guide the wheels where one track branches from another or crosses it.
  • noun An oblong cloak button, covered with netted thread, and fastening into a loop instead of a button hole.
  • noun The loop of the scabbard of a bayonet or sword.
  • noun (Railroads) a frog adapted for tracks that cross at right angles.
  • noun a popular name for a large puffball.
  • noun one who eats frogs; -- a term of contempt applied to a Frenchman by the vulgar class of English.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Frog hopper.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small, leaping, hemipterous insect living on plants. The larvæ are inclosed in a frothy liquid called cuckoo spit or frog spit.
  • noun (Bot.) the yellow water lily (Nuphar).
  • noun (Zoöl.) the frothy exudation of the frog hopper; -- called also frog spittle. See Cuckoo spit, under Cuckoo.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small tailless amphibian of the order Anura that typically hops
  • noun The part of a violin bow (or that of other similar string instruments such as the viola, cello and contrabass) located at the end held by the player, to which the horsehair is attached
  • noun Cockney rhyming slang Road. Shorter, more common form of frog and toad
  • noun The depression in the upper face of a pressed or handmade clay brick
  • noun An organ on the bottom of a horse’s hoof that assists in the circulation of blood
  • noun The part of a railway switch or turnout where the running-rails cross (from the resemblance to the frog in a horse’s hoof)
  • verb To hunt or trap frogs
  • noun offensive A French person
  • noun Canada, offensive A French-speaking person from Quebec
  • noun A leather or fabric loop used to attach a sword or bayonet, or its scabbard, to a waist or shoulder belt
  • noun A fastener for clothing consisting of a button that fits through a loop
  • verb To ornament or fasten a coat, etc. with frogs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English frogge, from Old English frogga.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English frogge, from Old English frogga, frocga ("frog"), from Proto-Germanic *fruþgô (“frog”), a pet-form of Proto-Germanic *fruþ-, *frauþaz (“frog”), deverbative of Proto-Indo-European *prew- (“to jump, hop”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki ("frog"), Sanskrit  (plava-),  (plavaka-, "frog"), Lithuanian sprūgti ("to leave, escape"), Russian прыгнуть (prýgnutĭ, "to leap"), прыгать (prýgatĭ, "to jump around"), Albanian fryj ("to blow")). See also frosh, frosk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From frog legs, stereotypical food of the French. Compare rosbif ("English person"), from roast beef, corresponding French term for English, likewise based on stereotypical food.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown. Possibly from Portuguese froco ("flock"), from Latin floccus ("flock").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Supposedly from ribbit ("sound made by a frog") sounding similar to "rip it".

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Examples

Comments

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  • The angled section within a spokeshave body that supports the blade.

    November 20, 2007

  • Theories pass. The frog remains.

    November 20, 2007

  • Ah yes, Catch-22. Great moments in literature that use the word 'frog.'

    Wait... that sounds like a list idea...

    November 20, 2007

  • Well, if anyone could do it, c_b, it's you. :-P

    November 20, 2007

  • In medical slang, used to refer to patients with advanced disease and dismal prospects who have fuckin' run outta gas.

    January 26, 2008

  • The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

    May 7, 2008

  • See nobody.

    August 4, 2008

  • I'm nobody? Boohoo.

    August 4, 2008

  • Do frog's use their front feet or their croaker to applaud? :o/

    August 5, 2008

  • Be kind and tender to the Frog,

    And do not call him names,

    As 'Slimy-Skin', or 'Polly-wog',

    Or likewise, 'Ugly James',

    Or 'Gape-a-grin', or 'Toad-gone-wrong',

    Or 'Billy-Bandy-knees';

    The Frog is justly sensitive

    To epithets like these.

    - Hilaire Belloc, 'The Frog'.

    December 5, 2008

  • When you rip out stitches in quilting, you are doing the "frog stitch." "To frog" means to pull out stitches, and is referred to as frogging. I'm told the origin of the term is the sound a frog makes (ribbit, ribbit), which sounds like "rip it." This is probably also the etymology of "frog" as applied to knitting, which is listed above.

    January 26, 2012