fret

1 of 6

verb (1)

ˈfret

fretted; fretting

Synonyms of fret next

transitive verb

: to eat or gnaw into : corrode

also : fray

The acid fretted the metal.

: rub, chafe

The harness strap was fretting the horse.

: to make by wearing away a substance

the stream fretted a channel

: to cause to suffer emotional strain : vex

don't you fret yourself about me—

J. C. Powys

: to pass (time) in fretting

a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage—

William Shakespeare

: agitate, ripple

fret the surface of the lake

intransitive verb

: to eat into something

: to affect something as if by gnawing or biting : grate

the … urgent voice fretted at his nerves—

Graham Greene

: wear, corrode

Marble frets away due to the rain.

: chafe

His back where the harness rubbed began to fret.

: fray sense 1

: to become vexed or worried

fretting over the high cost of feeding their families—

Vance Packard

of running water : to become agitated

a brook fretting over rocks

fret

2 of 6

noun (1)

: the action of wearing away : erosion

: a worn or eroded spot

: an agitation of mind : irritation

fret

3 of 6

verb (2)

fretted; fretting

transitive verb

: to decorate with interlaced designs

: to form a pattern upon

: to enrich with embossed or pierced carved patterns

fret

4 of 6

noun (2)

: an ornamental network

especially : a medieval metallic or jeweled net for a woman's headdress

: an ornament or ornamental work often in relief consisting of small straight bars intersecting one another in right or oblique angles

fret

5 of 6

noun (3)

: one of a series of ridges fixed across the fingerboard of a stringed musical instrument (such as a guitar)

fretless adjective

fretted adjective

fret

6 of 6

verb (3)

fretted; fretting

transitive verb

: to press (the strings of a stringed instrument) against the frets

Did you know?

Fret and Eating

The meat-and-potatoes meaning of fret is "to eat." The verb is used literally, as in "Moths fretted the clothing," but more often figuratively to describe actions that corrode or wear away. A river "frets away" at its banks, or something might be said to be "fretted out" with time or age. Fret also applies to emotional experiences so that something that "eats away at someone" is "fretting the heart or mind."

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

Hawthorne fans could lose themselves for a year in this material, poring over examples of the author fretting over word choice in the novel proofs. —

Ted Scheinman, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 May 2023 Lenders are fretting about liquidity in the first survey since Silicon Valley Bank failed. —

Nate Dicamillo, Quartz, 8 May 2023 Let other film festivals fret about the future of the movie business and pander to the all-powerful streamers. —

Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Apr. 2023 For anyone worried that the Trout National announcement is just a preface to the center fielder’s eventual retirement from America’s favorite pastime, fret not. —

Tori Latham, Robb Report, 27 Mar. 2023 In 1968, when Earth had just 3.5 billion people, biologist Paul Ehrlich, in his famously dire book The Population Bomb, fretted about overpopulation causing hundreds of millions to die from famine. —

National Geographic, 21 Mar. 2023 For the uninitiated, don't fret, because there's not much to catch up on. —

Danielle Cohen, Allure, 11 Mar. 2023 But don’t fret: Wednesday’s fire at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, appears to have been put out successfully and without injury or contamination. —

Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 23 Feb. 2023 Since then, Brayshaw, 63, has fretted over whether his well water is safe. —

Kenzi Abou-sabe, NBC News, 22 Feb. 2023

Noun

Then there is the drama contained inside: the strut and fret of history’s great men and women who have passed across this stage. —

Peter Ross, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Apr. 2023 Veteran farmhands see their presence in their fields as a matter of necessity and fret about the future. —

Dominique Soguel, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 June 2022 Some fret about sticker shock driving away clientele. —

Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Mar. 2023 Scientists who monitor wildlife fret that there is something else going on in this wave of flu. —

Maryn Mckenna, Wired, 24 Jan. 2022 And as Floridians up and down the state's 1,350 miles of coastline fret about whether their condos could be in danger, calls are growing for reform. —

Casey Tolan And Curt Devine, CNN, 14 July 2021 This time, the zeroes meant the Lakers could finally celebrate instead of fret. —

Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2021 Through it all, there’s a standout score from five composers — Common, Patrick Warren, Karriem Riggins, Isaiah Sharkey, and Burniss Travis — who together assemble an eclectic mix of trills and rumbles and strings that pluck and fret, without worrying whether the end result is harmonious. —

Amy Nicholson, Variety, 23 Jan. 2022 Why fret? —

Josef Joffe, WSJ, 22 Aug. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fret.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb (1) and Noun (1)

Middle English, to devour, fret, from Old English fretan to devour; akin to Old High German frezzan to devour, ezzan to eat — more at eat

Verb (2)

Middle English, back-formation from fret, fretted adorned, interwoven, from Anglo-French fretté, past participle of fretter to tie, probably from Vulgar Latin *firmitare, from Latin firmus firm

Noun (3)

perhaps from Middle French frete ferrule, from freter

First Known Use

Verb (1)

12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Noun (1)

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Noun (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (3)