Also 6 frete, freete, freate, 7 freat. [f. FRET v.1]
1. A gnawing or wearing away, erosion. Now rare. Also concr. † a canker, a fretting sore; a decayed spot (in the wood of a bow or arrow, in a hair).
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 120. Freetes be in a shaft as well as in a bowe, and they be muche lyke a Canker, crepynge and encreasynge in those places in a bowe, whyche be weaker then other.
1639. Fuller, Holy Warre (1647), IV. iv. 173. This string to his bow is so full of gauls, frets, and knots, it cannot hold, and is broken by many learned Divines.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., ii. § 6 (1689), 10. Such [hairs] as are of equal, bigness, even, round, clear, and free from galls, scabs and frets.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), II. 82. The fret or erosion which frequently takes place in different parts of the skin from an acrid secretion of the exhalents or sebaceous glands.
1830. Tennyson, Poems, 41.
| Before the heavy clod | |
| Weighs on me, and the busy fret | |
| Of that sharpheaded worm begins | |
| In the gross blackness underneath. |
fig. 1580. Babington, Lord’s Prayer (1596), 6. If thou desirest to be free from the fret of enuie, or to doe any thing that belongeth to a godly life, pray.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 391. And now behold how many pumples and fretts lurke vnder this one skabbe of the popish doctrine.
1603. Drayton, Bar. Wars, III. xii.
| Time never toucht him with deforming Fret, | |
| Nor had the power to warpe him but awry. |
1606. G. W[oodcocke], Iustine, Gg 6b. He was a diligent repressor of Eunuches and Courtiers, calling them, the mothes and frettes of the Pallace.
2. Pain in the bowels, gripes, colic. Also pl. Now dial. Cf. FRET v.1 4.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, II. xlix. 316. Oile of [Iesamine] … will … appease the frets of yoong children.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physic., 161. The distilled water of Parsley is a familiar medicine with Nurses to give their children when they are troubled with winde in the stomach or belly, which they call the Frets.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 642. The fret, or mouldy-grubs.
1842. Johnson, Farmer’s Encycl., Fret. In farriery, a name sometimes applied to gripes or colic in horses or other cattle.
3. Agitation of mind; a ruffled condition of temper; irritation, passion, vexation; also, querulous or peevish utterance. In phr. fret of mind, fret and fever, fret and fume.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xliii. 38.
| This formost spider and flie in furious fret, | |
| Frowning ech on other. |
1607. Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag., I. i. Wks. 1878, II. 6.
| O the thought of that | |
| Turnes my abused heart-strings into fret. |
1612. Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1849), I. 184. He is much blamed for it, as if he had hastened his brother’s end by putting him into frets.
1647. Trapp, Comm. 2 Cor. xii. 5. For that afflictions oft shew our infirmities, our impatience, &c. they make us sick of the fret, &c.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., xx. 77. It were a plague and fret of mind beyond all expression to the poor credulous Laiety.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 145. I had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with indignation at the cowardice of the men; and my lord was in as great a fret as I, but there was no remedy.
1820. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. South-Sea Ho. Situated as thou art, in the very heart of stirring and living commerce,—amid the fret and fever of speculation.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. III. vii. A fret and fever that keeps heart and brain on fire.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xxix. (1867), 290. When he heard his wife’s plaintive fret or pretty babble over totally indifferent things, and perceived of how flimsy a nature were all her fine sentiments.
1885. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxxvii. 2. Those whom the Lord loves are delivered from the fret and fume of life, and they rest sweetly in Him.
† 4. A sudden disturbance (of weather); a gust, squall (of wind); in early use also, agitation of waves. Obs.
1558. W. Towrson, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 130. It [foresaile] was blowen from the yarde with a freat.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 24.
| Through Sicil his raging wyld frets and rumbolo rustling | |
| On peeres you sayled [Scyllæam rabiem experti]. |
1590. R. Ferris, Voy. Bristow, in Arb., Garner, VI. 159. We were in a great fret by reason of the race.
1653–4. Whitelocke, Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772), I. 166. We have had very tempestuous weather, with such frets of weather in twenty howers time att all the points of the compass, that two of our our anchors each of 1600 lb. weight have had much adoe, with new cables, to hold our frigotts.
1678. Teonge, Diary (1825), 269. At on this morninge roase a frett of wind, which, in despite of all meanes that wee could use, drowned our longe-boate, which was at the starne of our ship.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), II. 315–6. Between Ireland and the height of the Cape, such frets of wind came down upon us, and so suddenly, in such contrary points of the compass, that canvass could not sustain it.
fig. 1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 73, 27 Nov., ¶ 10. Nor was there any longer danger, that I might at last be frustrated of my hopes by a fret of dotage.
5. Secondary fermentation in liquors. Phr. on or upon the fret.
1664. Beale, Cider, in Evelyn’s Pomona, 40. Men like or dislike Drink, that hath more or less of the fret in it.
1703. Art & Myst. Vintners, 12. The same Parell serves also for White Wines upon the frett, by the Turbulency and rising of their Lee.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 1. Midling Ale brew’d of the best Malt, Boiled, Fermented, Depurated according to Art; that hath no burnt, musty, or otherwise ill smack; that is pale, sparkling fine, fresh, and not upon the fret.
1763. S. T. Janssen, Smuggling laid open, 111. The Officer should not dip when any Wines are upon the Fret.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 240. When every symptom of fret is wholly subsided, the cider is racked off, and is thus prepared for the London market.
1890. Gloucestersh. Gloss., Fret, a gaseous fermentation of cider or beer.
6. Phr. On or upon the fret (see senses 3 and 4; perh. partly transf. from sense 5): in a state of agitation, irritation, ill-humor, or impatience.
1679. Shadwell, True Widow, I. i. ’Tis some Roaring Ranting Play, that’s upon the Fret all the while.
1688. Vox Cleri Pro Rege, 3. But he fears nothing, when his Zeal and his Discretion are once, upon the fret.
1704. Addison, Italy, 160. The Surface of it [the River Velino], for a long Space, cover’d with Froth and Bubbles; for it runs all along upon the Fret.
1705. S. Whately, in Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch., I. 166. Crying out whenever he is put upon the fret, ‘Govr Nicholson, Govr Nicholson.’
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, X. x. For the moment you have put him upon the fret, you’ll fall into the dumps yourself, hold out your hand to him, and, losing the opportunity of gaining some material point, make up at the first soft word.
1854. De Quincey, Autobiog., Wks. II. 280. Wordsworth’s route, on this occasion, lay, at first, through Austrian Flanders, then (1788, I think) on the fret for an insurrectionary war against the capricious innovations of the Imperial coxcomb, Joseph II.
1858. R. S. Surtees, ‘Ask Mamma,’ xxv. 94. He was always either on the strut or the fret, always either proclaiming the marked attention he had met with, or worrying himself with the idea that he had not had enough.
