: to press (the strings of a stringed instrument) against the frets
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Fret and Eating
The meat-and-potatoes meaning of fret is "to eat." The verb is used literally, as in "Mothsfretted 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."
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
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