fry

Clipping of West Frisian Frysk.

fry

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for West Frisian.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of West Frisian terms

• enPR: frī, IPA^(key): /fɹaɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ

From Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō (“to roast, fry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “I roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”), भृग् (bhṛg, “the crackling of fire”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”).

fry (third-person singular simple present fries, present participle frying, simple past and past participle fried)

1. A method of cooking food.
   1. (transitive) To cook (something) in hot fat.

      I am frying the eggs.

   2. (intransitive) To cook in hot fat.

      The eggs are frying.

   3. (obsolete) To simmer; to boil.^[1]
      • 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

        With crackling flames a caldron fries.

      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

        Ye might haue seene the frothy billowes fry

2. To affect or be affected by extreme heat or current.
   1. (intransitive, colloquial) To suffer because of too much heat.

      You'll fry if you go out in this sun with no sunblock on.

   2. (chiefly US, ambitransitive, slang) To execute, or be executed, by the electric chair.

      He's guilty of murder: he's going to fry.

   3. (transitive, informal) To destroy (something, usually electronic), often with excessive heat, voltage, or current.

      If you apply that much voltage, you'll fry the resistor.

      Taking drugs for years fried his brain.

3. To make laugh thoroughly.

   This joke is absolutely frying me.

• See also Thesaurus:cook

• (be executed in the electric chair): swing

fry (plural fries)

1. (usually in the plural, fries, chiefly Canada and US, cooking) A fried piece of cut potato.

   Synonyms: chip, french fry

2. (Ireland, British, cooking) A meal of fried sausages, bacon, eggs, etc.

   Synonym: fry-up

3. (Australia, New Zealand, cooking) The liver of a lamb.

   Synonym: liver

4. (usually in the plural, fries, US, cooking) A lamb or calf testicle.

   Synonyms: prairie oyster, Rocky Mountain oyster, tendergroin

5. (colloquial, archaic) A state of excitement.

   to be in a fry

From Middle English frie (“spawn of fish, young or small fish, offspring, progeny, children”), probably from Old Norse frjó (“seed, semen”), from Proto-Germanic *fraiwą (“seed, semen, offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per-, *(s)prey- (“to strew, sow”). Cognate with Icelandic frjó (“pollen, seed”), Icelandic fræ (“seed”), Swedish frö (“seed, embryo, grain, germ”), Danish and Norwegian frø (“seed”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍅 (fraiw, “seed”). Likely merging with Old French froiz, froie (“spawn, spawning”), from froier, freier (“to spawn”), from Latin fricō (“to rub”). Compare friable.

fry (uncountable)

2. Young fish; fishlings.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:

     it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other frie; that must be the Angels Ministery at the end of mortall things.

3. (now chiefly UK dialectal) Offspring; progeny; children; brood.
4. (archaic) A swarm, especially of something small.

   a fry of children

5. (UK dialectal) The spawn of frogs.

• fryling
• sac fry
• small fry

Dialectal, of obscure origin. Perhaps related to or a corruption of frith (“a wood, forest", also "brushwood, wattle”), from Middle English fryth, frith (“forest, woodland, a fence of brush or wattle, hedge”).

fry (plural fries)

1. A kind of sieve.
2. A drain, usually made of brushwood.

fry (third-person singular simple present fries, present participle frying, simple past and past participle fried)

1. (transitive, dialectal) To make a brushwood drain.

fry

1. alternative form of frie