Definition of "fret" in English

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete or poetic) Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.

2. (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry.

3. (transitive) To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.

   • to fret the surface of water

4. (transitive) In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.

5. (ambitransitive) To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.

6. (ambitransitive) To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.

7. (intransitive) To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.

   • A wristband frets on the edges.

8. (intransitive) To be anxious, to worry.

9. (intransitive) To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.

   • Rancour frets in the malignant breast.

10. (intransitive, brewing, oenology) To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.

noun

1. Agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.

2. Agitation of the mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.

   • He keeps his mind in a continual fret.

3. Herpes; tetter (“any of various pustular skin conditions”).

4. (mining, in the plural) 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.

noun

1. An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines, often in relief.

2. (heraldry) A saltire interlaced with a mascle.

verb

1. (transitive) To decorate or ornament, especially with an interlaced or interwoven pattern, or (architecture) with carving or relief (raised) work.

2. (transitive) To form a pattern on; to variegate.

3. (transitive) To cut through with a fretsaw, to create fretwork.

noun

1. (music) 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.

2. (obsolete or dialectal) A ferrule, a ring.

verb