When you fret, you worry so much about something that it eats away at you. Many people fret about taking standardized tests, but really, they're nothing to sweat.
Fret comes from the Old English word freton which means to devour like an animal. When you fret over something, it consumes your thoughts. If you tell your mother to not fret about you while you're at a sleepover camp, you're telling her to not worry about you too much. Sometimes it means to be agitated though. When you're waiting for the results of an exam, you might fret and wring your hands. In a totally unrelated meaning, a guitar player calls the raised lines on the neck of the guitar that help him play correctly frets.
1 |
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be agitated or irritated
agitation resulting from active worry
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2 |
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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
provide (a musical instrument) with frets
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3 |
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an ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines (often in relief)
carve a pattern into
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4 |
v |
be too tight; rub or press
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5 |
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wear away or erode
a spot that has been worn away by abrasion or erosion
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