Inflected fried, frying. [a. F. fri-re (= Pr. frir, Sp. freir, Pg. frigir, It. friggere):—L. frīgĕre to roast, fry, cogn. with Gr. φρύγειν, Skr. bhrajj, of the same meaning.]
1. trans. To cook (food) with fat in a shallow pan over the fire.
c. 1290. [see FRYING vbl. sb.].
1340. Ayenb., 111. Þet ilke bread … wes ymad of oure doȝe … and yfryd ine þe panne of þe crouche.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (1495), 747. Flesche of bestys is sometyme rostyd and somtyme fryed.
c. 1420. Liber Cure Cocorum (1862), 21.
| Take onyons and loke þou hew hom smalle, | |
| Frye hom in grece, take peper and ale. |
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C iij a. Take a blacke snake … and fry it in an erthyn potte.
1530. Palsgr., 158. Vne póylle, a fryeng pan to frye any meate in.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 95. Frie it with sheeps suet, and apply it to bruses.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 71. A very good Way to fry Beef Steaks.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 65. The tender leaves are very commonly … fried with other herbs.
1875. Mary Jewel, Model Cookery, 21/1. Frying being actually boiling in fat instead of water.
b. Phrases: Fry your eggs: mind your own business. To have other fish to fry (see FISH sb. 4 c).
1841. G. P. R. James, Brigand, ii. Fry your eggs, Gandelot, and leave other people to fry theirs.
1864. N. & Q., 3rd Ser. VI. 495/1. Cornish Proverbs … Fry me for a fool and you’ll lose your fat in frying.
2. transf. and fig. † a. trans. To torture (a person) by fire; to burn or scorch (anything) with effects analogous to those of frying; sometimes hyperbolically, of the heat of the sun, etc. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xxix. 22. As Achab whom friede [Vulg. frixit] the king of Babiloyne.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well (E.E.T.S.), 11. Þou schalt be rostyd and fryed in þe fyir of helle!
c. 1526. Frith, Disput. Purgat. (1829), 112. He will not fry us in the fire of purgatory for our sins.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., Prayers, 27. My banes as it ver in ane frying panne ar fried.
1638. Wither, Brit. Rememb., VIII. 2700. When we were boyld and fryde, in blood and fire.
1695. Blackmore, Prince Arthur, IV. 925.
| Where raging Sirius fries the thirsty Land, | |
| And rich Pactolus rolls his golden Sand. |
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VII. 644.
| So when with crackling Flames a Cauldron fries, | |
| The bubling Waters from the Bottom rise. |
† b. To fry a faggot: see FAGGOT sb. 2. Obs.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 124. Master Hooper … said … must we two take this matter in hand, and begin to frie these faggots.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 946/2. A great manie of them … had died for it in Smithfield, in frieng a faggot.
3. intr. To undergo the operation of cooking with fat in a pan. rare in lit. sense. To fry in one’s own grease (also † in passive): originally transf., said e.g., of persons burning alive, and fig. to be tormented by one’s own passions; now only, to suffer the consequences of one’s own folly.
13[?]. Coer de L., 4407.
| Beter it is that we out renne, | |
| Thenne as wrehches in house to brenne, | |
| And frye inne oure owne gres! |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 487. In his owene grece I made him frye For angre, and for verray Jalousye.
a. 1415. Lydg., Temp. Glas (1891), 14. Thus is he fryed in his owene gres, To-rent & torn with his owene rage.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 37. She is as fierce as a Lyon of Cotsolde. She fryeth in hir owne grease.
1684. T. Burnet, The Theory of the Earth, III. 78. Let the Towns and Cities of the Earth, say they, be laid in ashes; Let the Woods and Forests blaze away; and the fat Soyl of the Earth fry in its own grease; These things will not affect us [the Rocks and Mountains].
4. transf. To undergo the action of fire or intense heat, with effects resembling those of frying; to frizzle, burn with a sputter or exudation of juices. † Formerly often of persons tormented by fire; also hyperbolically.
c. 1526. Frith, Disput. Purgat. (1829), 136. Thinkest thou to be justified by frying in purgatory?
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., xii. 117. Luke gif ȝour partie prydis yame in thair spurring, Keipand the feildis, and fryis not in thair furring.
1583. Lyly, Pref. Ep., in T. Watson’s Poems (Arb.), 29. A sworde frieth in the fire like a blacke ele.
1596. Drayton, Legends, iii. 147. Fuell to that fire, Wherein He fry’d.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, I. i. Earth and seas in fire and flame shall fry.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Matt. vii. 6. Go about to cool them, you shall but add to their heat, as the Smiths forge fries, when cold water is cast upon it; and as hot water, if stirred, casteth up the more fume.
1656. Cowley, Mistress, Incurable, ii. As well might men who in a feaver fry, Mathematique doubts debate.
1664. Waller, Late War Spain, 84. Spices and Gums about them melting fry.
a. 1711. Ken, Imitat., Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 529. Tho’ frying where the Sun all Day Shoots perpendicular fierce Ray.
1715. Bentley, Serm., x. 358. What Heart could bear that his dead Father should fry in the flames of Purgatory?
1886. A. Winchell, Walks & Talks Geol. Field, 152. Among the typical bituminous coals, we distinguish the caking and the non-caking. The former when ignited, seem to fry with an exudation of a fluid bitumen, which evolves much gas and hardens into a crust somewhat impervious to the air, and thus obstructing the draft. The latter burn freely, without an incrustation.
b. with advbs. up, out expressing the result of heating.
1627. May, Lucan, V. 471. The metalls melted by the Sunne, fry’d vp.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 177. When the Fat is well tryed or fryed out.
1816. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 1. The heat of the stove made the rosin in the wood to fry out.
c. fig. Of a person: To burn with strong passion or emotion. Also refl. in same sense.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xl. 163. Thay fryit in furie that he schaipit quick.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 19. Thus she frying fretted, thus deepely plunged in auger Æolian kingdoom shee raught.
1591. Lyly, Endym., V. iii. In the moment that I feared his falshood and fried myself most in mine affections.
1646. Sir R. Fanshawe, trans. Guarini’s Pastor Fido (1676), 192.
| The happiest Pair that this day frye | |
| Under the torrid Zone of Love. |
1647–8. Joseph Beaumont, Psyche, I. ccxviii.
| Whether she walks, or sits, or stands, or lies, | |
| Her wretched self still in her self she fries. |
1767. H. Kelly, etc. The Babler, I. No. 22, 97–8. I sat frying the whole time, from a conscious incapacity to please, and a strange necessity of giving a general dissatisfaction.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 62. My uncle, frying with vexation, cried, ‘Good God, sister, how you talk!’
1842. T. Martin, My Namesake, in Fraser’s Mag., XXVI. Dec., 652/2. I lay frying with impatience to hear the clatter of cups overhead, and the everlasting calls for herrings and buttered toast.
† d. said of a feeling, passion, etc. Obs.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 83.
| Here fyre and flames by Fancie framde, | |
| In brest doo broyle and frye. |
1581. T. Howell, Deuises (1879), 176. Thus loue at once doth frye, freeze, ryse and fall.
a. 1632. Fairfax (Ogilvie). What kindling motions in their breasts do fry.
† 5. Of water: To be agitated, boil, seethe, foam. Obs.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 45. Ye might have seene the frothy billowes fry Vnder the ship.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VII. 736.
| Thus, when a black-brow’d gust begins to rise, | |
| White Foam at first on the curl’d Ocean fries. |
† b. To ferment; to seethe (in the stomach). Of lime: To slake. Obs.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. ii. 44. Halfe a pint of wheat, and as much barley boyled with water for a man a day, and this having fryed some 26. weekes in the ships hold, contained as many wormes as graines.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 52. To keep the Oyle from frying in the Stomach, you must drinke … Milde Beere after it.
1647. Trapp, Mellificium Theol., in Comm. Ep., 619. Cast water upon this lime, it will fry the faster.
Hence Frying ppl. a.
1587. Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 128. Whose frying hartes With Cupids coles did melte.
1592. Greene, Mamillia, II. Wks. (Grosart), II. 175. So discontinuance should be of sufficient force to quench out ye frying flames of loue.
