Definitions

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

  • adjective Occurring or appearing quite often or at close intervals.
  • adjective Habitual or regular.
  • transitive verb To pay frequent visits to; be in or at often.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To crowd; fill.
  • To visit often; resort to habitually: as, to frequent the theater.
  • Crowded; thronged; fall.
  • Often appearing, seen, or done; often repeated or recurring; coming or happening in close succession or at short intervals.
  • Doing or accustomed to do a thing often; practising or given to repetition; repetitious; iterative: as, to be frequent in one's remonstrances.
  • Currently reported; often heard.

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

  • transitive verb To visit often; to resort to often or habitually.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make full; to fill.
  • adjective Often to be met with; happening at short intervals; often repeated or occurring.
  • adjective Addicted to any course of conduct; inclined to indulge in any practice; habitual; persistent.
  • adjective obsolete Full; crowded; thronged.
  • adjective obsolete Often or commonly reported.

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

  • adjective Done or occurring often; common.
  • verb transitive To visit often.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb do one's shopping at; do business with; be a customer or client of
  • adjective frequently encountered
  • adjective coming at short intervals or habitually
  • verb be a regular or frequent visitor to a certain place

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, ample, profuse, from Old French, from Latin frequēns, frequent-, crowded, numerous, frequent.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French frequent, from Latin frequens ("crowded, crammed, frequent, repeated, etc.")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French frequenter, from Latin frequentare ("to fill, crowd, visit often, do or use often, etc."), from frequens ("frequent, crowded")

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Examples

  • "We had the promise of stable retirement," Silva said, after a career spent in what he described as frequent contact with human blood, puke and poop.

    Are These People Overpaid? 2011

  • Although Mr. Kushchenko says he will have neither a financial stake nor a formal role in the Nets 'organization, he speaks with a proprietary air about his colleague's venture and what he calls their frequent "joint reflections" on it.

    Meet Prokhorov's Fixer-In-Chief 2010

  • GERARD KAISER, JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Because of their status, they often do not keep the follow-up appointments, and if there are then problems in the follow-up or particularly need to continue medication, if that's not done, then they return to the hospital and become what we call frequent flyers to the emergency room.

    CNN Transcript Apr 8, 2005 2005

  • And there's a Japanese company, Triumph International, that's launching what it calls a frequent flier bra, guaranteed not to set off the metal detectors because, you see, there are no wires.

    CNN Transcript Dec 10, 2004 2004

  • JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9, Reuter - A top South African industrialist expressed concern at what he called frequent, confusing and often contradictory statements made by various African National Congress

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • Celebrated writer and Xiamen University Professor Yi Zhongtian advocates the move amidst what he calls the frequent occurrence of "moral dust storms."

    RSSMicro Search - Top News on RSS Feeds 2010

  • Thomas Gandow, criticized what he called the frequent belittlement of Scientology in the media and the indecision of politicians to work towards banning the organization in Germany.

    Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE 2010

  • Celebrated writer and Xiamen University Professor Yi Zhongtian advocates the move amidst what he calls the frequent occurrence of "moral dust storms."

    RSSMicro Search - Top News on RSS Feeds 2010

  • Long earned the nickname "bus barn bully" by drivers and other transportation employees for what they described as frequent violent outbursts and aggressive behavior.

    FortBendNow.com 2009

  • We need the marketing money to spur growth in what we call our frequent-flier segment.

    Think Progress 2009

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