fret
Agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other causeAgitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
» Not all string instruments have frets.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
11 sensesAgitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
Agitation of the mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.
He keeps his mind in a continual fret.
Herpes; tetter (“any of various pustular skin conditions”).
(in the plural)The worn sides of riverbanks, where ores or stones containing them accumulate after being washed down from higher ground, which thus indicate to miners the locality of veins of ore.
An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines, often in relief.
an ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines (often in relief)
A saltire interlaced with a mascle.
One of the pieces of metal, plastic or wood across the neck of a guitar or other string instrument that marks where a finger should be positioned to depress a string as it is played.
Bund, Bundstäbchen
ладlad, поро́жекporóžek
a small bar of metal across the fingerboard of a musical instrument; when the string is stopped by a finger at the metal bar it will produce a note of the desired pitch
A channel, a strait; a fretum.
(rare)A channel or passage created by the sea.
(Northumbria)A fog or mist at sea, or coming inland from the sea.
(dialectal, obsolete)A ferrule, a ring.
Examples
21 sentencesNot all string instruments have frets.
How many frets does your guitar have?
Tom asked me to help him put new frets on his guitar.
Tom asked me to help Mary put new frets on her guitar.
Don't fret about it.
ruНасчёт этого не переживай. — marafon
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretFrom Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)).
From Middle English frēten (“to decorate”), from Old French freté, freter, fretter (“to fret (decorate with an interlacing pattern)”), from Old French fret (from fraindre (“to break”), from Latin frangō (“to break, shatter”), + Old French -er (suffix forming verbs) (from Latin -āre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- (“to burden, charge”)).
From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).
From Latin fretum (“channel, strait”). Doublet of fretum.
From Old French frete, fraite, fraicte, possibly partly confused with fret (“channel, strait”).
Attested since the mid-1800s, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to fret (“to form a pattern upon”), fret (“to consume”) (as the fog does the land), or fret (“to agitate the surface of water”) (as the wind which blows the fog inland does); compare the semantics of haar (“cold wind; misty wind; fog, mist”). Dialectally, the spelling freet and pronunciation /fɹit/ are also found, as they also are for fret (“consume; agitate”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.