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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fritter.

Synonym of pancake, a portion of batter fried on a pan.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/UK/ˈfɹɪtɚ/US[ˈfɹɪɾɚ]US
  1. Synonym of pancake, a portion of batter fried on a pan.

  2. A dish made by coating various other foods in batter and frying or deep-frying them together, typically in small portions.

  3. A fragment; a shred; a small piece.

    figuratively · uncommon
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Vulgar Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry. For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.

verb/ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/UK/ˈfɹɪtɚ/US[ˈfɹɪɾɚ]US
  1. To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.

    intransitive · often
    I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.
    He can’t figure out how to finish the paper he’s writing, so he’s resorted to frittering with the fonts.
  2. To sinter.

    transitive
  3. To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.

    transitive
  4. To break into small pieces or fragments.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Vulgar Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry. For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.

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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.