Also 7 freeze, 7–8 frize, 8 frieze. [ad. Fr. friser, = Sp. frisar, to curl (hair), raise a nap on (cloth); in the latter of these senses the Fr. vb. was adopted earlier: see FRIEZE v.1 The Eng. word seems to have been originally pronounced (frīz), but to have afterwards undergone assimilation to the older FRIZZLE v.
The origin of the Rom. vb. is disputed. There seems to be no good ground for the common view that it is of Teut. etymology (the interpretation of the ethnic name of the Frisians as ‘curly haired’ being a mere assumption); quite possibly it may be a mere special use of the homophonous F. friser FRIEZE v.1]
1. trans. To curl or crisp (the hair); to form into a mass of small, crisp curls.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 22 Nov. Dressing of herself with her haire frized short up to her eares.
1750. F. Coventry, Hist. Pompey, II. iii. (1785), 53/2. People who frize their hair in the newest fashion.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Clinker (1895), 378. This machine [a tye-periwig] has been in buckle ever since, and now all the servants in the family were employed to frizz it out for the ceremony.
1777. W. Whitehead, Goat’s Beard, 32. Is’t not enough you read Voltaire, While sneering valets frizz your hair?
1820. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. South-Sea Ho., He wore his hair … powdered and frizzed out.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 41. Grayish hair, frizzed, in short crépé curls.
2. intr. Of hair: To stand up in short crisp curls. Also trans. To set up (hair) on end; to erect.
1696. [see FRIZZING ppl. a.].
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 501. The men shave their head, leaving only a narrow crest or comb, beginning at the crown of the head, where it is about two inches broad and about the same height, and stands frizzed upright.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 246. The lion roaring and frizzing his shaggy crest.
3. trans. To raise a bur on (the nap of cloth). = FRIEZE v.1
1806. Webster, Compend. Dict., Friz, to form nap into small burs.
4. In Leather-dressing: To rub (wash-leather, etc.) with pumice-stone or a blunt knife, so as to remove the grain, soften the surface, and give a uniform thickness.
1697. [see FRIZZED ppl. a.].
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v. Wet-glover, Frizing is the working the Skin woolly on one side.
1853. C. Morfit, Arts of Tanning, 434. The skins, after having been brought to a state of pelt … are subjected to what is technically termed frizing, which is a rubbing with a pumice stone, or working under the round edge of a blunt knife.
1885. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, xlii. 681. The treatment with the scraping-knife being generally not sufficient for complete frizzing, the remaining portions of the grain are removed with another sharp knife.
Hence Frizzed ppl. a., Frizzing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 117.
| Freez’d Minions all, most brave in vaunts and vowes, | |
| Lions in court, in camp are turn’d to cows. |
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2459/4. Black short frized Hair.
1696. W. Mountague, Delights Holland, 52. Fellows, with black frizzing Hair and great Whiskers.
1697. View Penal Laws, 60. To use dry, curried and frized Leather.
c. 1770. Erskine, Barber, in Poet. Reg. (1810), 327. Ruin seize thee, scoundrel Coe! Confusion on thy frizzing wait.
1787. Generous Attachm., I. 28. His hair wears the flourishes of the most skilful of the frizzing tribe.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall (1845), 309. The barber would thrust out his frizzed head, with a comb sticking in it.
1856. R. W. Procter, Barber’s Shop, xxi. (1883), 204. He … walked about London in his well-combed wig, frizzed and three tailed.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 917/2. Frizzing-machine.… A machine on which the nap of woolen cloth is formed into a number of little prominences or tufts.
