Definitions

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

  • noun A freshman, as in college.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A frog.

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

  • noun informal a student during his first year in a high school, college, or university; a freshman.

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

  • noun dialectal A frog.
  • noun colloquial A first year student, at certain universities.
  • verb transitive, slang To initiate academic freshmen, notably in a testing way.
  • verb transitive, slang To damage through incompetence.

Etymologies

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

[Shortening and alteration of freshman (perhaps influenced by German Frosch, frog, grammar-school pupil).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English frosch, from Old English frosc ("frog"), from Proto-Germanic *fruskaz (“frog”), from Proto-Indo-European *prew- (“to jump, hop”). Cognate with West Frisian froask ("frog"), Dutch vors ("frog"), German Frosch ("frog"), Norwegian frosk ("frog"), Icelandic froskur ("frog"). See also frosk, frog.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an alteration of freshman, under influence from German dialectal Frosch ("grammar-school pupil", literally "frog"). Related to English frosh above.

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Examples

  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, including appearances by All-Star cast members coaching these "frosh" on how to take home a win for their alma mater.

    BN - Broadcast Newsroom-news 2010

  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, including appearances by All-Star cast members coaching these "frosh" on how to take home a win for their alma mater.

    BN - Broadcast Newsroom-news 2010

  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, including appearances by All-Star cast members coaching these "frosh" on how to take home a win for their alma mater.

    Multichannel News: Business News 2010

  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, including appearances by All-Star cast members coaching these "frosh" on how to take home a win for their alma mater.

    Multichannel News: Business News 2010

  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, including appearances by All-Star cast members coaching these "frosh" on how to take home a win for their alma mater.

    Multichannel News: Business News 2010

  • Tennessee State will enjoy some solid scorers in sophomores-to-be Jacquan Nobles, Martell Buie, Tashan Fredrick and Robert Covington, as both should be much improved from their frosh campaigns.

    Tennessee State - Team Notes 2010

  • So a mere rotation of the calendar later, I had become the fastest frosh player at San Diego State.

    Matthew Anderson: Repairing The Black-Jewish Rift Matthew Anderson 2011

  • So a mere rotation of the calendar later, I had become the fastest frosh player at San Diego State.

    Matthew Anderson: Repairing The Black-Jewish Rift Matthew Anderson 2011

  • Glen Dean (12.2 ppg) and Jeffrey Forbes (11 ppg) were the team's leading scorers, and fellow frosh Kevin Winford (6.9 ppg) also showed great offensive potential.

    Big Sky Conference 2010

  • Jeffrey Forbes drained 47 treys -- one fewer than Dean -- and displayed as much offensive promise as his fellow frosh.

    Big Sky Conference 2010

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