Definitions

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

  • noun A mass of bubbles in or on a liquid; foam.
  • noun Salivary foam released as a result of disease or exhaustion.
  • noun Something unsubstantial or trivial.
  • noun High prices unwarranted by economic fundamentals.
  • noun A fit of anger or vexation.
  • intransitive verb To cover with foam.
  • intransitive verb To cause to foam.
  • intransitive verb To exude or expel foam.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To foam; give out spume, foam, or foam-like matter.
  • To cause to foam, as beer; cause froth to rise on the top of.
  • To emit or discharge as froth; hence, to vent or give expression to, as what is unsubstantial or worthless: sometimes with out.
  • To cover with froth: as, “the horse froths his bit,”
  • noun The collection of bubbles caused in a liquid by fermentation or agitation; spume; foam.
  • noun Any foamy matter, as the foam at the mouth or on the sides of an over-driven horse.
  • noun Something comparable to froth, as being light, unsubstantial, or evanescent.

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

  • transitive verb To cause to foam.
  • transitive verb To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
  • transitive verb To cover with froth.
  • intransitive verb To throw up or out spume, foam, or bubbles; to foam; as beer froths; a horse froths.
  • noun The bubbles caused in fluids or liquors by fermentation or agitation; spume; foam; esp., a spume of saliva caused by disease or nervous excitement.
  • noun Any empty, senseless show of wit or eloquence; rhetoric without thought.
  • noun Light, unsubstantial matter.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the cuckoo spit or frog hopper; -- called also froth spit, froth worm, and froth fly.
  • noun See Cuckoo spit, under Cuckoo.

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

  • noun foam
  • noun figuratively unimportant events or actions; drivel
  • verb transitive To create froth.
  • verb intransitive To bubble.

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

  • verb exude or expel foam
  • verb make froth or foam and become bubbly
  • noun a mass of small bubbles formed in or on a liquid
  • verb become bubbly or frothy or foaming

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old Norse frodha.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Noun attested around 1300, from Old Norse froða, from Proto-Germanic *fruþōn; Old English afreoðan ("to froth") is from same Germanic root. Verb attested from late 14th century.

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Examples

  • Comments (19) ... and before the first shovel of dirt was dug up the developer said, "the froth is off the market".

    Linchpin lost (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • But froth is usually characterized by investors bidding up every deal in sight.

    Chinese IPOs Get Kinder Welcome in U.S. Lynn Cowan 2010

  • The ceiling above us bubbled, like the froth from a punctured battery, and the brown clouds parted in places as if sliced at from above.

    CLOUDCUTTER • by Bill Ward 2008

  • Loved “the froth from a punctured battery” and all of the careful word choices that helped to create the tone of this piece.

    CLOUDCUTTER • by Bill Ward 2008

  • The froth is treated with a reusable solvent that separates out most of the remaining water and clay, and partially upgrades the bitumen.

    Technology in the Oil Industry: What's Now and What's Next? 2005

  • Another indicator that has sent many market watchers into a froth has been the descent in the CBOE Market Volatility Index VIX.

    Doubters Give Stocks Upside Bernie Schaeffer 2006

  • Such fish as are neither oviparous nor viviparous arise all from one of two sources, from mud, or from sand and from decayed matter that rises thence as a scum; for instance, the so-called froth of the small fry comes out of sandy ground.

    The History of Animals 2002

  • Soon after the addition of the yeast, a brownish froth, which is really new yeast, issues from the aperture, and falls like a cataract into troughs prepared to receive it.

    Fragments of science, V. 1-2 John Tyndall 1856

  • The Russians - Putin especially - are accustomed to thinking in outcomes, not diplomatic froth, which is why the second most powerful statesman in the world could take to the stage claiming he knew nothing of the WikiLeaks furore which cast his government as collaborators with organised crime in a "mafia state".

    The Guardian World News Paul Hayward 2010

  • The Russians - Putin especially - are accustomed to thinking in outcomes, not diplomatic froth, which is why the second most powerful statesman in the world could take to the stage claiming he knew nothing of the WikiLeaks furore which cast his government as collaborators with organised crime in a "mafia state".

    The Guardian World News Paul Hayward 2010

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