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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

frazzle.

To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈfɹæz(ə)l/
  1. To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.

    transitive
    The new puppy has been chewing on everything, and my favorite afghan has become frazzled.
  2. To drain emotionally or physically.

    transitive
    After dealing with the children all day, I just can’t help feeling frazzled.
Where this word comes from

Originally an East Anglian word. Either from a variant of the now obsolete fazle (“to unravel”), altered due to influence from fray, or from a blend of fazle and fray. fazle comes from earlier fasel, which was inherited from Middle English facelyn (“[of the end of a rope, or of cloth] to unravel”). Middle English facelyn was a verbal derivative of the noun fasylle (“frayed edge”), which was in turn a derivative (with the diminutive suffix -el) of Old English fæs (“fringe, border”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas, from Proto-Germanic *fasōn. Related to German Faser (“fibre”).

noun/ˈfɹæz(ə)l/
  1. A burnt fragment; a cinder or crisp.

    informal
    The bacon was burned to a frazzle.
  2. The condition or quality of being frazzled; a frayed end.

    informal
  3. A messy situation or scene.

Where this word comes from

Originally an East Anglian word. Either from a variant of the now obsolete fazle (“to unravel”), altered due to influence from fray, or from a blend of fazle and fray. fazle comes from earlier fasel, which was inherited from Middle English facelyn (“[of the end of a rope, or of cloth] to unravel”). Middle English facelyn was a verbal derivative of the noun fasylle (“frayed edge”), which was in turn a derivative (with the diminutive suffix -el) of Old English fæs (“fringe, border”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas, from Proto-Germanic *fasōn. Related to German Faser (“fibre”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.