frisk

1 of 2

verb

frisked; frisking; frisks

transitive verb

: to search (a person) for something (such as a concealed weapon) by running the hand rapidly over the clothing and through the pockets

intransitive verb

: to leap, skip, or dance in a lively or playful way : gambol
frisker noun

frisk

2 of 2

noun

1
: an act of frisking
2

Examples of frisk in a Sentence

Verb carefree kids laughing and frisking about in their backyard Noun fondly remembers the summer before he started college as one long frisk
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
As the lights came up, an old man dozed while a teenage boy and girl frisked nearby in an unconvincing body of water. Jesse Green, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2024 The Philadelphia Police Department settled a lawsuit in 2011 accusing police officers of illegally stopping and frisking thousands of people. Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, 1 Feb. 2024 Officers stopped and frisked 41 percent more pedestrians in 2022 than in 2021. Jeffery C. Mays, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023 The officers then confiscated copies of the book, detained and frisked customers, and put out a warrant for the store owner, who was jailed the next day. Joy Lanzendorfer, The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2023 The sun gleams with late summer perfection on the beautiful crowd, mostly Black and Latine, and vastly diverse in age—including one elderly woman using a walker, who giggles as the security lady gestures at gently frisking her. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Pitchfork, 18 Sep. 2023 He was frisked and an officer found a handgun, the report said. Josephine Peterson, Dallas News, 8 Aug. 2023 Too many people are stopped, frisked, and searched unlawfully. Larry Neumeister, BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2023 Two officers threw him against the vehicle, frisked and handcuffed him. Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 7 June 2023
Noun
Meanwhile, just next door in Philadelphia, Mayor Parker is busy hiring hundreds of new cops, banning and criminalizing ski masks, and promising to also implement stop and frisk. Olayemi Olurin, Essence, 11 Mar. 2024 During a pat frisk of another teen, officers found a gun in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, police said. Travis Andersen, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Aug. 2023 And in June, a federal monitor said that anti-crime units activated by Mr. Adams were conducting too many unlawful stops, searches and frisks. Jeffery C. Mays, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023 Arrests in the city were highest in the 2000s and early 2010s, during the peak era of stop and frisk, a period when police conducted millions of mostly unlawful stops targeting Black and Latino men. Ashley Southall, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2023 The report asserted that officers did not have the legal basis to stop, frisk or restrain McClain. Aya Elamroussi, CNN, 23 Sep. 2023 And stop and frisk, which allowed New York police officers to temporarily detain people and check them for contraband, was practiced for many years, including under Mike Bloomberg's tenure as Mayor. Joe Weisenthal, Bloomberg.com, 20 Apr. 2023 And so the combination of the Rockefeller drug laws and stop and frisk led to people spending years in, in prison for minor cannabis possession. Joe Weisenthal, Bloomberg.com, 20 Apr. 2023 Stop and frisk becomes a plot point, as does the deconstruction of neighborhoods of color that have existed in New York City for generations. Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frisk.' 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

obsolete frisk lively

First Known Use

Verb

1519, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Noun

1525, in the meaning defined at sense 2c

Time Traveler
The first known use of frisk was in 1519

Dictionary Entries Near frisk

Cite this Entry

“Frisk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frisk. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

frisk

verb
ˈfrisk
1
: to move around in a lively or playful way
2
: to search (a person) quickly especially for concealed weapons
frisker noun

Legal Definition

frisk

transitive verb
: to run the hand rapidly over the outer clothing of (a suspect) for the purpose of finding concealed weapons compare search

Note: The purpose of frisking a suspect is to insure the safety of an officer making an investigation against concealed weapons, not to uncover evidence. The officer must be justified in his or her encounter of the suspect and must have a reasonable suspicion that the suspect is armed. The scope of the frisk must be limited to the discovery of weapons.

frisk noun

More from Merriam-Webster on frisk

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!