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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

5 entries under this word

Fret

Frèt, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FRETTED; p. pr. & vb. n. FRETTING.] [Prov. Fr. fretter, Fr. frotter, Pr. frétar, It. frettare, from Lat. fricare, frictum, to rub; A-S. fretan, to eat, to gnaw, Sw. frata, D. vreten, M. H. Ger. vrezzen, O. H. Ger. frezzan, frezan, N. H. Ger. fressen, from ver-essen, i. e., to eat up, Goth. fritan, fra-itan.

Sense 1. To rub; to wear away by friction; hence, to eat away; to gnaw; to corrode; to chafe; as, to fret cloth; to fret a piece of gold or other metal; a worm frets the planks of a ship.

Sense 2. To impair; to wear away.

By starts His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear. Shak.

Sense 3. To variegate; to diversify; to ornament or give figure to by wearing or cutting away.

Yon gray lines, That fret the clouds, are messengers of day. Shak.

With many a curve my banks I fret, By many a field and fallow. Tennyson.

Sense 4. To make rough, agitate, or disturb; to cause to ripple; as, to fret the surface of water.

Sense 5. To tease; to irritate; to vex; to make angry.

Fret not thyself because of evil-doers. Ps. xxxvii. 1.

Sense 6. [A-S. frätu, ornament, frätijon, to adorn, Goth. fratjan.] To ornament with raised work.

Whose skirt with gold was fretted all about. Spenser.

Frēt, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To be worn away; to be corroded; to chafe; to make way by attrition or corrosion. Many wheels arose, and fretted one into another with great excoriation. Wiseman.

  1. To be agitated; to be in violent commotion; as, rancor frets in the malignant breast.
  2. To be vexed; to be chafed or irritated; to be angry; to utter peevish expressions.

He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the grounds. Dryden.

Frèt, n.

noun

n. 1. The agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or other cause; a rippling on the surface of water; small undulations continually repeated. Addison. 2. Agitation of mind; commotion of temper; irritation; as, he keeps his mind in a continual fret. Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret. Pope. 3. (Arch.) An ornament consisting of small fillets intersecting each other at right angles. His lady’s cabinet is adorned on the fret . . . with carving. Evelyn. Fret.

  1. (Her.) A bearing composed of bars crossed and interlaced.
  2. (Mus.) A short piece of wire fixed on the finger-board of a guitar, or a similar instrument, to indicate where the finger is to be placed in playing.
  3. Herpes; tetter. Dunglison.
  4. (pl.) (Mining.) The worn sides of river banks, where ores, or stones containing them, accumulate by being washed down from the hills, and thus indicate to the miners the locality of the veins.
A continuous geometric fret pattern formed from interlocking right-angled lines.
Fret.

Frĕt, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. To furnish with frets, as an instrument of music.

Frêt, n.

noun

n. A frith. See FRITH.