Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To cook over direct heat in hot oil or fat.
  • intransitive verb Slang To destroy (electronic circuitry) with excessive heat or current.
  • intransitive verb To be cooked in a pan over direct heat in hot oil or fat.
  • intransitive verb Slang To undergo execution in an electric chair.
  • noun A french fry.
  • noun A dish of a fried food.
  • noun A social gathering at which food is fried and eaten.
  • noun A recently hatched fish.
  • noun A young salmon living in fresh water that is older than an alevin and younger than a parr or smolt.
  • noun A young animal of certain other groups, such as frogs.
  • noun An individual, especially a young or insignificant person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any small edible fishes, as those of the family Engraulidæ, the anchovies, and certain fishes of the family Clupeidæ, as the sardines, and of the family Atherinidæ.
  • noun The roe of fishes, especially that of such fishes as are used for food.
  • noun That which is fried; a dish of anything fried.
  • noun A state of mental ferment or agitation: as, he keeps himself in a constant fry.
  • To dress by heating or roasting with fat in a pan over a fire; cook and prepare for eating in a frying-pan: as, to fry meat or vegetables.
  • Figuratively, to vex; agitate.
  • To heat; parch; render torrid.
  • To be subjected to heat in a pan containing fat over a fire; hence, to suffer a frying effect from great heat; simmer as if in bubbling fat.
  • To ferment, as in the stomach, or, figuratively, in the mind; undergo a seething process.
  • To be agitated; boil.
  • noun Seed; offspring: especially with reference to human beings.
  • noun A swarm, as of children or any small animals, now specifically of little fishes; a number of small or insignificant objects: often used in contempt.
  • noun In particular The young of the salmon or of trout at a certain stage of their development.
  • noun A kind of sieve.
  • noun A drain.

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

  • transitive verb To cook in a pan or on a griddle (esp. with the use of fat, butter, or olive oil) by heating over a fire; to cook in boiling lard or fat
  • noun (Zoöl.) The young of any fish.
  • noun A swarm or crowd, especially of little fishes; young or small things in general.
  • intransitive verb To undergo the process of frying; to be subject to the action of heat in a frying pan, or on a griddle, or in a kettle of hot fat.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To simmer; to boil.
  • intransitive verb To undergo or cause a disturbing action accompanied with a sensation of heat.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To be agitated; to be greatly moved.
  • noun A dish of anything fried.
  • noun colloq. A state of excitement.

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

  • noun Offspring; progeny; children; brood.
  • noun Young fish; fishlings.
  • noun archaic A swarm, especially of something small (a fry of children).
  • noun The spawn of frogs.
  • verb transitive To cook (something) in hot fat.
  • verb intransitive To cook in hot fat.
  • verb intransitive, colloquial To suffer because of too much heat.
  • verb intransitive, informal To be executed by the electric chair.
  • verb transitive, informal To destroy (something, usually electronic) with excessive heat, voltage, or current.
  • noun (mainly Canada and US) A fried potato.
  • noun Ireland, UK A meal of fried sausages, bacon, eggs, etc.
  • noun colloquial, archaic A state of excitement.

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

  • verb be excessively hot
  • verb kill by electrocution, as in the electric chair

Etymologies

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

[Middle English frien, from Old French frire, from Latin frīgere.]

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

[Middle English fri, probably from Anglo-Norman frie, from Old French frier, froyer, to rub, spawn, from Latin fricāre, to rub.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English fry ("seed, offspring"), from Old Norse frjó ("seed, semen"), from Proto-Germanic *fraiwan (“seed, semen, offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per-, *(s)prei- (“to strew, sow”). Cognate with Icelandic frjó ("pollen, seed"), Icelandic fræ ("seed"), Swedish frö ("seed, embryo, grain, germ"), Danish frø ("seed"), Gothic  (fraiw, "seed").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French frire, from Latin frīgere ("to roast, fry"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrugō, "I roast, bake"), Sanskrit भृज्ज् (bhṛjjati, "to roast, grill, fry"), भृग् (bhṛg, "the crackling of fire")

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