fret.
Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
Meaning & usage
Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
To chafe or irritate; to worry.
To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.
the brooks fretting down their channels
Don't fret the surface of the lake.
In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.
To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
To mine by agitating or eating away at (ore in the bank of a river).
To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.
To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.
A wristband frets on the edges.
To be anxious, to worry.
To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.
Rancour frets in the malignant breast.
To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)). The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō (“to chafe, rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word. Cognates *Dutch vreten, fretten (“to devour, hog, wolf”) *Low German freten (“to eat up”) *German fressen (“to devour, gobble up, guzzle”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”) *Swedish fräta (“to eat away, corrode, fret”) *Danish fråse (“to gorge”)
Agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
Agitation of the mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.
He keeps his mind in a continual fret.
Herpes; tetter (“any of various pustular skin conditions”).
The worn sides of riverbanks, where ores or stones containing them accumulate after being washed down from higher ground, which thus indicate to miners the locality of veins of ore.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)). The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō (“to chafe, rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word. Cognates *Dutch vreten, fretten (“to devour, hog, wolf”) *Low German freten (“to eat up”) *German fressen (“to devour, gobble up, guzzle”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”) *Swedish fräta (“to eat away, corrode, fret”) *Danish fråse (“to gorge”)
An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines, often in relief.
A saltire interlaced with a mascle.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frēten (“to decorate”), from Old French freté, freter, fretter (“to fret (decorate with an interlacing pattern)”), from Old French fret (from fraindre (“to break”), from Latin frangō (“to break, shatter”), + Old French -er (suffix forming verbs) (from Latin -āre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- (“to burden, charge”)).
To decorate or ornament, especially with an interlaced or interwoven pattern, or (architecture) with carving or relief (raised) work.
To form a pattern on; to variegate.
To cut through with a fretsaw, to create fretwork.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English frēten (“to decorate”), from Old French freté, freter, fretter (“to fret (decorate with an interlacing pattern)”), from Old French fret (from fraindre (“to break”), from Latin frangō (“to break, shatter”), + Old French -er (suffix forming verbs) (from Latin -āre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- (“to burden, charge”)).
One of the pieces of metal, plastic or wood across the neck of a guitar or other string instrument that marks where a finger should be positioned to depress a string as it is played.
A ferrule, a ring.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).
To bind, to tie, originally with a loop or ring.
# To fit frets on to (a musical instrument).
to fret a guitar
To press down the string behind a fret.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).
A channel, a strait; a fretum.
Where this word comes from
From Latin fretum (“channel, strait”). Doublet of fretum.
A channel or passage created by the sea.
Where this word comes from
From Old French frete, fraite, fraicte, possibly partly confused with fret (“channel, strait”).
A fog or mist at sea, or coming inland from the sea.
Where this word comes from
Attested since the mid-1800s, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to fret (“to form a pattern upon”), fret (“to consume”) (as the fog does the land), or fret (“to agitate the surface of water”) (as the wind which blows the fog inland does); compare the semantics of haar (“cold wind; misty wind; fog, mist”). Dialectally, the spelling freet and pronunciation /fɹit/ are also found, as they also are for fret (“consume; agitate”).
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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.