rare. [ad. OF. frete, fraite, fraicte, breach.] A breach or passage made by the sea. (Quot. 1884 perh. belongs to FRET sb.2)
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1537/2. They had no entrance at all, vntill the riuer had made a new fret, or that they had digged a channell through the beach, which manie times they were driuen to doo.
1633. T. Stafford, Pacata Hibernia, III. vi. (1810), 550. Before they could compasse the fret, or cleft rocky ground as aforesaid, all our Army was landed.
1884. Times, 15 Aug., 5. The sands had a tendency to accumulate in the Upper Mersey and … it was the ‘frets’ and erosion of the sand banks which counteracted this tendency.
