English
fret
see also: FRET
Pronunciation Verb

fret (frets, present participle fretting; past fretted, past participle fretted)

  1. (transitive, obsolete or poetic) Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat#Verb|eat.
    • [c. 1370–1390, [William Langland], “Passus. xviii. de visione”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...] (in Middle English), imprinted at London: By Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, OCLC 837479643 ↗, folio lxxxxix, verso ↗:
      At the beginning God gaue the doom#Middle English|dome him ſelfe / That Adam and Eue and all them that ſewed, / Shuld dye down right and dwell in pyne after, / If that they touched a tree and the frute eaten, / Adam afterwarde agaynſt hys defence / freet of that frute, and forſake as it were, / The loue of our lord and his lore bothe, [...]
      At the beginning God gave the judgment himself / That Adam and Eve and all them that ensued, / Should die down right and dwell in pain after, / If that they touched a tree and the fruit ate, / Adam afterward against his warning / Ate of that fruit, and forsook, as it were, / The love of our Lord and his lore both, [...]]
  2. (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry#Verb|worry.
  3. (transitive) To make rough#Adjective|rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple#Verb|ripple.
    to fret the surface of water
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (First Quarto)‎, London: Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664 ↗:
      Small lightes are ſoone blown out, huge fires abide, / And with the winde in greater furie fret: / The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie debt#English|det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh falls#English|fals haste#English|haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.
  4. (transitive) In the form fret out: to squander, to waste#Verb|waste.
  5. (ambitransitive) To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
  6. (ambitransitive) To be chafed#Adjective|chafed or irritated#Adjective|irritated; to be angry or vexed#Adjective|vexed; to utter#Verb|utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry#Noun|worry.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Psalms 37:1 ↗:
      Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415 ↗, book I, page 17 ↗:
      For when he knew his Rival freed and gone, / He ſwells with Wrath; he makes outrageous Moan: / He frets, he fumes, he ſtares, he ſtamps the Ground; / The hollow Tow'r with Clamours rings around: [...]
  7. (intransitive) To be worn away; to chafe; to fray#Verb|fray.
    A wristband frets on the edges.
  8. (intransitive) To be anxious, to worry#Verb|worry.
    • 1813 January 26, [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Printed [by George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 38659585 ↗, pages 218–219 ↗:
      With this answer Elizabeth was forced to be content; but her own opinion continued the same, and she left him disappointed and sorry. It was not in her nature, however, to increase her vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having performed her duty, and to fret over unavoidable evils, or augment them by anxiety, was no part of her disposition.
  9. (intransitive) To be agitated#Adjective|agitated; to rankle#Verb|rankle; to be in violent commotion.
    Rancour frets in the malignant breast.
  10. (intransitive, brewing, oenology) To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar#Noun|sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.
    • 1725, [Noël] Chomel, “CHERRY-WINE ↗”, in R[ichard] Bradley, editor, Dictionaire Oeconomique: Or, The Family Dictionary. […], in Two Volumes, […], volume II (I–Z), London: Printed for D. Midwinter, […], OCLC 991191027 ↗:
      If their Cherries are full ripe and ſweet, they put only a Pound and an half of good Sugar to each gallon of Liquor, ſtir it well together, and cover it cloſe, and ſtir it no more till the next Day, then pour it carefully off the Lees as before; then let it ſtand again, and do the ſame the next Day into the Veſſel they keep it in: This may be repeated oftner, if they ſee the Lees are groſs, and like to make it fret when it is ſettled, then ſtop it up till ſeven or eight Months are paſs'd; at which time if perfectly fine, they bottle it; [...]
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. Agitation of the surface#Noun|surface of a fluid#Noun|fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling#Noun|rippling on the surface of water#Noun|water.
  2. Agitation of the mind#Noun|mind mark#Verb|marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper#Noun|temper; irritation.
    He keeps his mind in a continual fret.
    • 1735, [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London; Dublin: Re-printed by George Faulkner, bookseller, […], OCLC 6363280 ↗, lines 148–153, page 8 ↗:
      Yet then did Gildon draw his venal Quill; / I wiſh'd the man a dinner, and ſate ſtill: / Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret; / I never anſwer'd, I was not in debt: / If want provok'd, or madneſs made them print, / I wag'd no war with Bedlam or the Mint.
  3. Herpes; tetter.
  4. (mining, in the plural) The worn#Adjective|worn side#Noun|sides of riverbanks, where ores or stone#Noun|stones containing them accumulate after being wash#Verb|washed down from higher ground, which thus indicate to miners the locality of veins of ore.
Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. An ornamental pattern#Noun|pattern consisting of repeated#Adjective|repeated vertical#Adjective|vertical and horizontal#Adjective|horizontal line#Noun|lines, often in relief#Noun|relief.
  2. (heraldic charge) A saltire interlaced with a mascle.
Verb

fret (frets, present participle fretting; past and past participle fretted)

  1. (transitive) To decorate or ornament#Verb|ornament, especially with an interlaced or interwoven pattern#Noun|pattern, or (architecture) with carving#Noun|carving or relief#Noun|relief (raised#Adjective|raised) work#Noun|work.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book II, canto IX, stanza 37, page 317 ↗:
      In a long purple pall, whose ſkirt with gold, / Was fretted all about, ſhe was arayd, [...]
  2. (transitive) To form#Verb|form a pattern on; to variegate.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i], page 114 ↗, column 2:
      Decius. Here lyes the Eaſt: doth not the Day breake heere? [...] Cin[na]. O pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey Lines, / That fret the Clouds, are Meſſengers of Day.
  3. (transitive) To cut#Verb|cut through with a fretsaw, to create fretwork.
Translations
  • French: ajourer
  • German: sägen, aussägen, heraussägen
  • Italian: lavorare d'intaglio
  • Russian: выпи́ливать
Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. (obsolete or dialectal) A ferrule, a ring#Noun|ring.
  2. (music) One of the piece#Noun|pieces of metal, plastic#Noun|plastic or wood across the neck#Noun|neck of a guitar or other string instrument that mark#Verb|marks where a finger#Noun|finger should be position#Verb|positioned to depress a string#Noun|string as it is play#Verb|played.
Translations Verb

fret (frets, present participle fretting; past and past participle fretted)

  1. To bind#Verb|bind, to tie#Verb|tie, originally with a loop#Noun|loop or ring#Noun|ring.
  2. (transitive, music) Musical senses.
    1. To fit#Verb|fit fret on to (a musical instrument).
      to fret a guitar
    2. To press#Verb|press down the string#Noun|string behind a fret.
Related terms Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. A channel#Noun|channel, a strait#Noun|strait; a fretum.
    • 1589, Humfrey Gilbert [i.e., {{w, “A Discourse Written by Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight, to Prooue a Passage by the Northwest to Cathaia, and the East Indies”, in Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], imprinted at London: By George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majestie, OCLC 753964576 ↗, chapter 1 (To Prooue by Authoritie a Passage to be on the North Side of America, to Go to Cathaia, and the East India), page 597 ↗:
      I came in fine to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all deſcriptions I found to be an Iſland enuironed around about with the Sea, hauing on the Southſide of it, the frete, or ſtraight of Magellan, [...]
Related terms Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. (rare) A channel or passage created by the sea.
Noun

fret (plural frets)

  1. (Northumbria) A fog#Noun|fog or mist#Noun|mist at sea, or coming inland from the sea.
FRET
Noun

fret

  1. (physics) Förster resonance energy transfer
  2. (physics) fluorescence resonance energy transfer, which is a type of the Förster phenomenon where one or both of the partners in the energy transfer are fluorescent chromophores
    • 2010, DeRocco et al., "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190435/http://www.biotechniques.com/BiotechniquesJournal/2010/November/Four-color-single-molecule-fluorescence-with-noncovalent-dye-labeling-to-monitor-dynamic-multimolecular-complexes/biotechniques-305419.html?pageNum=3 Four-color single-molecule fluorescence with noncovalent dye labeling to monitor dynamic multimolecular complexes]", BioTechniques, vol 49, no 5, pg. 807.
      FRET interactions among four dyes on DNA have been recorded with a confocal microscope using photodiodes for single point detection.


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