Fret v.¹

Pa. t. and pple. fretted. Pr. ppl. fretting. Forms: Inf. 1 fretan, 2 freoten, 3–6 frete(n, 3 south. vreten, 5 fretyn, freete, 6 freat(e, 6–7 frett(e, 4– fret. Pa. t. 1–2 frǽt, 3–4 fret(e, south. vret, freet, 4 frat(e, frette, 6 fret; also weak forms: 5 freted, 6– fretted. Pa. pple. 1 freten, 4 freaten, fretyn(e, 5 frete, -ette; weak forms: 6– fretted; also 4–7 fret. Also 3–4 i-, yfrete(n, 5–6 i-, yfret(te. [OF. fretan str. vb. (conjugated like etan to EAT) = MLG., MDu. vrēten (Du. vreten), OHG. freẓẓen (MHG. vreẓẓen, mod.G. fressen), Goth. fraitan (pret. frêt), f. OTeut. fra- (see FOR- pref.¹) + *etan to EAT.]

  † 1.  trans. Chiefly of animals: To eat, devour. Also with up and to eat of. Obs.

Beowulf, 1582.

O. E. Chron., an. 894. Hie … hæfdon micelne dæl þara horsa freten.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 133. Sum [sede feol] bi þe weie and werð to-treden and fuȝeles hit freten.

c. 1205.  Lay., 31675.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 66. Þe coue … fret al þæt of hwat heo schulde uorð bringen hire cwike briddes.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 4027. Ðis leun sal oðer folc freten.

a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter (Horstman), lxxix. 14. A beste frate it and nama.

c. 1315.  Shoreham, 161.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 194. Adam afterward aȝeines hus defence Frette of þat fruit.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1950, Ariadne.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 729. Þey freten vp the furste froyt & falsliche lybbeþ.

  absol.  1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 95. And in fastyng-dayes to frete · ar ful tyme were.

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 71. Haue of þine own, & faste gyne to frete.

  † b.  transf. To devour, consume, destroy. Obs.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Deut. xxxii. 22. Fyr fryt land mid his wæstme.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 404. Þat þe flod nade al freten with freȝtande waȝeȝ.

a. 1366[?].  Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 387. For alle thing it [tyme] fret and shal.

1388.  Wyclif, Micah v. 6. Thei schulen frete the lond of Assur þi swerd.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 9689.

  absol.  1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 67. Thee fyre heer on fretting [ignis edax] with blaze too rafter is heaued.

  2.  To gnaw; to consume, torture or wear away by gnawing. Now only of small animals: = EAT 9. Also intr. (const. on, into).

a. 1200.  Moral Ode, 272.

c. 1305.  Lay., 166. Heo [fleoȝen] freten þet corn & þat græs.

c. 1275.  The XI Pains of Hell, 19, in O. E. Misc., 147. Wrmes habbeþ my fleys ifreten.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6570. Vermyn grete … þe synful men sal gnaw and frete.

1340–70.  Alisaunder, 1159. Fayre handes & feete freaten too the bonne.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 171. Wormes … frate so Julianus his neþer ende þat [etc.].

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, VII. ii. (1554), 166 b.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., lxvii. 383–4 (Add. MS.). In my lyppes and my tonge, for wicked and veyne speches and lecherouse kyssynges, I suffere thes todes to frete.

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xlvii. 207. On his hondis he gan to frete.

1547–64.  Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 127. The mothes and soft wormes fret the cloath.

1551.  Psalter xxxix. 12. Like as it wer a moth fretting a garment.

a. 1577.  Gascoigne, Flowers, Wks. (1587), 92.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 198. The Dragons put in their heads into their snout, and so stop their wind, and withall fret and gnaw the tenderest part that they find there.

1826.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Pop. Fallacies, Home is a Home, etc. We cannot bear to have our thin wardrobe eaten and fretted into by moths.

1864.  Swinburne, Atalanta, 1423.

  fig.  1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. xix. (1495), 45. The fende … purposyth to chew and to frete the clene lyf of gode men.

  b.  To champ (the bit); also absol.

1835.  Lytton, Rienzi, V. ii. Fretting his proud heart, as a steed frets on the bit, old Colonna regained his palace.

1850.  Blackie, Æschylus, II. 67.

  3.  transf. of slow and gradual destructive action, as of frost, rust, disease, chemical corrosives, friction, the waves, etc.: = EAT 10. Const. into, to (the result). Also with asunder, away, in pieces, off, out.

  In this and the following senses this vb. has partly coalesced with FRET v.¹

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 184. He uret him suluen, weilawei! ase þe uile deð.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 1039.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. vii. (1495), 557. The fome of syluer … fretyth awaye superfluytee of deed flessh.

c. 1430.  in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 183. Þe rust þat þi siluer doiþ freete.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 20. The thistyll is an yll wede, roughe and sharpe to handell, and freteth away the cornes nygh it.

1567.  G. Fenner, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 148. Our cable was fretted in sunder with a rocke and so burst, where we lost that cable and anker also.

a. 1577.  Gascoigne, Flowers, Wks. (1587), 69.

1590.  R. Payne, Descr. Irel. (1841), 5. The seas fretteth away the Ice and Snowe there, muche more then in England.

1594.  Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, III. 37. Inkes that be not common, wherof some will fall from the paper in a few daies, and others would corrode or fret the paper in peeces.

1603.  Florio, Montaigne (1634), 266. The Barble fishes, if one of them chance to be engaged, will set the line against their backes, and with a fin they have, toothed like a sharp saw, presently saw and fret the same asunder.

1640.  Fuller, Joseph’s Party-coloured Coat, vii. (1867), 182. Some thieves have eat off their irons, and fretted off their fetters, with mercury water.

1658.  W. Burton, Comment. Itin. Antoninus, 158. The name of the City [on the coin] fretted out and quite worn away with age.

1660.  Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxii. 166. In the Islands commonly called Azores, The Air (and Wind) is so sharp, that in a short time it frets not onely Iron Plates, but the very Tiles upon the Roofs of Houses, and reduceth them to dust.

1727.  W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 74. When you have done writing, set the Nips of your Pens in Water, for the Copperas in the Ink will fret the Nibs.

1859.  Kingsley, Misc. (1860), I. 106. An island some three miles long, desolate, flat-headed, fretted by every frost and storm.

1878.  Huxley, Physiography, 134. Aided by its burden of detrital matter, the river frets away the rocks along its banks and thus tends to widen its channel.

  absol.  1526.  Tindale, 2 Tim. ii. 11. Their wordes shall fret even as doeth a cancre.

1597.  Gerard, Herball, I. lxxxiv. 135 The Onions do fret, attenuate or make thin, and cause dryness.

1610.  Markham, Masterp., II. clxxiii. 484. It [Arsnick] bindeth, eateth, and fretteth, being a very strong corrosiue.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v., [Said of a grindstone] Capital stone, it frets (i.e. grinds) well.

  b.  fig. Chiefly of the passions, etc.: To ‘devour,’ ‘consume,’ torment; cf. EAT 10 c. Also, to fret oneself. Obs. exc. in fret the heart, in which use this sense is now hardly distinguishable from 8.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 16132.

1300.  Gower, Conf., III. 98.

1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, IV. i. (1554), 101 a.

c. 1450.  How good Wife taught Daughter, 80, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 185. Envyouse herte hym selfe fretithe, my dere childe.

a. 1541.  Wyatt, Poet. Wks. (1861), 47.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneid, IV. 126. Dido doth burne with loue, rage fretes her boones.

1600.  Holland, Livy, IX. xiv. (1609), 322. Their hearts alreadie fretted and cankered at the very roote, for the last disgrace received.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 260, 28 Dec., ¶ 1. A crasy Constitution, and an uneasy Mind is fretted with vexatious Passions for young Mens doing foolishly what it is Folly to do at all.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. xli. 241. It did tease me; insomuch that my very heart was fretted.

1849.  Saxe, Poems, Proud Miss M^cBride.

1856.  Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1870), II. 59. So many curiosities drive one crazy, and fret one’s heart to death.

  † c.  To fret out (time): to waste.

1608.  Armin, Nest Ninn. (1880) 50. By the third is cald to question most that musically fret their time out in idle baubling.

  † 4.  Said of pains in the stomach or bowels.

c. 1275.  The XI Pains of Hell, 148, in O. E. Misc., 151. Gripes freteþ heore Mawen.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 179/1. Fretyn, or chervyn, torqueo.

  5.  To form or make by wearing away; = EAT 11. With cognate obj. to fret its way.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 167.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xix. 441. He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it.

1872.  C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., iv. 87. King’s River,—a broad white torrent fretting its way along the bottom of an impassable gorge.

  † 6.  intr. To make a way by gnawing or corrosion; lit. and fig.; = EAT 12. Also with through. Const. into, to. Obs.

1399.  Langl., Rich. Redeles, II. 127. The ffresinge ffrost ffreted to here hertis.

1509.  Hawes, The Pastime of Pleasure, xxxii. (Percy), 159.

1534.  Act 26 Hen. VIII., c. 9. The flud and rage of the sea … doth freate … in dyuers places.

1587.  Turberv., Epit. & Sonn. (1837), 368.

1614.  Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 1106. How dangerous it is, to suffer sinne to lye fretting into the soule! which if it were washt off betimes with our repentance, could not kill vs.

1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. vii. 123. The Water in this manner swelling high; would sooner fret through and cause a passage then make a stoppage.

1650.  Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, IV. v. 82. His streams [mouths of the Nile] fret one into another. Ibid., 373. The beams were not mortised into the walls of the Temple, because the intireness of that building was not to be wounded with holes, and perforations, which in process of time might fret in, and indent into the structure it self.

1676.  Wiseman Surg., I. xvii. 80. It inflamed and swelled very much, many Wheals arose, and fretted one into another, with great Excoriation.

  † 7.  intr. for refl. To become eaten, corroded, or worn; to waste or wear away; to decay, become corrupt. Also with asunder, off, out. Obs. Cf. FRET v.⁴ 2.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, B ij b. And that same penne shalle frete asonder, and fall a way.

1545.  Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 121. Bowes moost commonlye freate vnder the hande, not so muche as some men suppose for the moistnesse of the hande, as for the heete of the hand.

1568.  Hist. Jacob & Esau, II. iv., in Hazl., Dodsley, II. 218.

1503.  Drayton, Idea, 170.

1657.  W. Rand, trans. Gassendi’s Life of Peiresc, II. 128. When passing through a coloured glasse, they [the Raies of the Sun] fret off, and carry with them some portion of the colour.

1761.  Haddington, Forest-trees (1765), 23. They set them [Alder trees] so deep that they fretted at the top, and died afterwards.

1762.  Falconer, Shipwr., II. 299.

1804.  Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 111. The wound fretted out into a sore about the size of a sixpence, which he shewed me, and which I affirmed had not the thickened edge and base, and other characters of a venereal chancre.

  8.  trans. To chafe, irritate. Chiefly with regard to the mind: To annoy, distress, vex, worry. Also, to fret oneself; and to bring into or to (a specified condition) by worrying. Cf. FRET v. 1.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 187/95. So þat þe salt scholde is woundene frete with þe brenninde fuyre.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xxxvi[i]. 1. Frett not thy self at the vngodly.

1546.  [see FRETTING vbl. sb. 3].

1594.  Forman, Diary (1849), 26. Yt wold be a black dai for her, because she cam not to me, and I was marvailously freted with yt.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 77.

1658.  Bromhall, Treat. Specters, I. 52. They that stood by mocked him, and he being fretted went away.

1693.  W. Freke, Art of War ix. 265. Arrows not only are of equal execution, but fret horse doubly more than Guns can.

1709.  Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 160, 15 April, ¶ 9. I should have fretted my self to Death at this Promise of a Second Visit, if I had not found in his Letter an Intimation of the good News which I have since heard at large.

1768.  Goldsm., Good-n. Man, I. i. I have tried to fret him myself every morning these three years; but instead of being angry, he sits as calmly to hear me scold, as he does to his hair-dresser.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, XI. iii.

1820.  W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 206–7. The horses were urged and checked until they were fretted into a foam.

1856.  Ld. Cockburn, Mem., iv. (1874), 190. Some of the Judges were ordered to attend the House of Lords to give explanations. Very sulky at being obliged to obey a mandate meant to pro mote their own reform, they were fretted into some thing like contempt by the rejection of a claim which they made to be allowed to sit within the bar.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 32. The long-lost mother, whose face we begin to see in the glass as our own wrinkles come, once fretted our young souls with her anxious humours and irrational persistence.

1867.  Trollope, Chron. Barset, I. xi. 91. The bishop, who was seated, fretted himself in his chair, moving about with little movements.

  absol.  c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 173. Þe bladdre ne mai not be soudid if it be kutt … for … þe vryne fretiþ & þat lettiþ þe souding.

1712.  Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. v. Injuries from friends fret and gall more, and the memory of them is not so easily obliterated.

  9.  intr. for refl. To distress oneself with constant thoughts of regret or discontent; to vex oneself, chafe, worry. Often with additional notion of giving querulous and peevish expression to these feelings. Also, to fret and fume, and fret it out.

1551.  R. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (1895), 75. For he (and that no marueil) when he was thus towchyd one the quicke, and hit on the gawl, so fret, so fumed and chafid at it, and was in such a rage, that he could not refrayn himselfe from chiding, skolding, railing, and reuiling.

1573.  G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 46. M. Proctor chafid and frettid like a proctor.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. iii. Wks. 1856, I. 135.

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, III. iii. 188. Now the nearer that such as are of the light are to such as live in darknesse, the more conspicuously are their evill deeds discovered: which makes them the more fret and fume.

1646.  J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 53. Hanniball gallantly frets it out in Silius.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. I. 81. He fretted to see his inferiours raised.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 9, 28 April, ¶ 1. He neither languishes nor burns, but frets for Love.

1768.  Goldsm., Good-n. Man, v. He only frets to keep himself employed, and scolds for his private amusement.

1802.  R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball, 43.

1832.  Tennyson, May Queen, Concl. 45.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, I. 7. Don’t fret, wife; we must do as others do, and be glad if nothing worse happens.

1874.  L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), II. v. 150. Englishmen were fretting under their enforced abstinence from the exciting struggles on the Continent.

1875.  W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 83. In secret, Jasper fretted and fumed.

  b.  quasi-trans. With away, out.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., V. v. 25.

1611.  Barrey, Ram Alley, III. i. in Hazl. Dodsley, X. 327.

1829.  I. Taylor, Enthus., ix. 244. These proper allowances being made, there will be no difficulty in turning from an indignant reprobation of the monkish practices, to a charitable and consoling belief in the personal virtues and even eminent piety of many who, in every age, have fretted away an unblessed existence within that dungeon of religious delusion—the monastery.

1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 48. She had driven him from his country to fret out his life in banishment.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 357. The Vibiuses and Floruses who at this time fretted their little hour on the narrow stage of Philippi.

  10.  intr. Of liquor: To undergo secondary fermentation. Obs. exc. dial.

1664.  Beale, Cider, in Evelyn’s Pomona, 36. When it [i.e., the Cider] is bottled it must not be perfectly fine; for if it be so, it will not fret in the bottle.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 244.

1775.  Sir E. Barry, Observ. Wines, 43. Some of the light, and more generous kind [of wine], though no artificial heats were necessary to bring them to maturity, yet required great care to prevent them from fretting, or running into a new Fermentation.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., 270. Fret, to ferment.

  transf.  1804.  Poet. Reg., 470.

  b.  trans. (causatively). Also, To fret in: see quot. 1872.

1742.  Lond. & Country Brew., I. (ed. 4), 66. Without fretting or causing it to burst the Cask for Want of Vent.

1860.  O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., xxii. (1891), 313. Both were old; old enough to have been moulded by their habits of thought and life; old enough to have all their beliefs ‘fretted in,’ as vintners say,—thoroughly worked up with their characters.

1872.  Cooley’s Cycl. Pract. Receipts (ed. 5), 1185/2. The technical terms ‘sweating-in’ and ‘fretting in’ are applied to the partial production of a second fermentation, for the purpose of mellowing down the flavour of foreign ingredients (chiefly brandy), added to wine.

  11.  intr. Of a stream, etc.: To move in agitation or turmoil, to flow or rise in little waves; to chafe. Often used with conscious metaphor and mixture of sense 9.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 477.

1803–6.  Wordsw., Intimat. Immort., xi.

1808.  Scott, Marm., II. Introd. 104.

1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, xxi. 307. The mill-stream, in broken, unquiet course, struggling with many stones, chafing against rugged banks, fretting with gnarled tree-roots, foaming, gurgling, battling as it went.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. xiv. 189. A noise like that of short sharp waves in a Highland loch, fretting under a squall against a rocky shore.

  fig.  1822.  Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. iv. (1869), 81. Is it that there is a certain stream of irritability that is continually fretting upon the wheels of life?

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 29.

  12.  trans. (causatively). To throw (water) into agitation; to cause to rise in waves; to ruffle.

1794.  G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. vi. 210. The surface of the water is fretted and curdled into the finest waves by the undulations of the air.

1839.  De Quincey, Recoll. Lakes, Wks. 1862, II. 54. Like some great river, the Orellana, or the St. Lawrence, that having been checked and fretted by rocks or thwarting islands, suddenly recovers its volume of waters and its mighty music.

1858.  Lytton, What Will He Do with It? I. iv. See, just where we stand, how the slight pebbles are fretting the wave—would the wave, if not fretted, make that pleasant music?

1863.  Hawthorne, Our Old Home, 272. The surface [of the Thames], to be sure, displays no lack of activity, being fretted by the passage of a hundred steamers and covered with a good deal of shipping.

1871.  Joaquin Miller, Songs Italy (1878), 23.

  13.  dial. See quot.; cf. sense 4 and FRET sb.² 2.

1856.  H. Evershed, Farming of Warwickshire, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XVII. II. 482. Some of the grass-land in this district is peculiarly liable to scour (‘fret’) the young cattle.