fret

English

/fɹɛt/

verb
Definitions
  • (transitive) Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
  • (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry.
  • (transitive) To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.
  • (transitive) In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.
  • (ambitransitive) To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
  • (ambitransitive) To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.
  • (intransitive) To be wear worn away; to chafe; to fray.
  • (intransitive) To be anxious, to worry.
  • (intransitive) To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.
  • (intransitive) To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English frēten (vex, eat up, chew, scrape away, destroy, trouble, hurt, adorn, corrode, bite, rub, sting, eat, ornament, devour, decorate, consume) inherited from Old English fretan (devour, break, eat up, burst, consume, fret, eat into) inherited from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (eat up, consume, devour), *fra- (for-, fully, away, prefix meaning completely) derived from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (before, toward, forward, for, in front of, forth), *h₁ed- (eat, related to eating), *h₁ed- (eat, related to eating).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*h₁ed-

Gloss

eat, related to eating

Concept
Semantic Field

Food and drink

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Emoji
🍴 🍽️ 🔪 🥄 🥢

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms