The sow frete the child right in the cradle.
--Chaucer.
2. To rub; to wear away by friction; to chafe; to gall;
hence, to eat away; to gnaw; as, to fret cloth; to fret a
piece of gold or other metal; a worm frets the plants of a
ship.
With many a curve my banks I fret. --Tennyson.
3. To impair; to wear away; to diminish.
By starts His fretted fortunes give him hope and
fear. --Shak.
4. To make rough, agitate, or disturb; to cause to ripple;
as, to fret the surface of water.
5. To tease; to irritate; to vex.
Fret not thyself because of evil doers. --Ps.
xxxvii. 1.
2. (Mus.) A short piece of wire, or other material fixed
across the finger board of a guitar or a similar
instrument, to indicate where the finger is to be placed.
Whose skirt with gold was fretted all about. --Spenser.
Yon gray lines, That fret the clouds, are messengers of
day. --Shak.
2. To eat in; to make way by corrosion.
Many wheals arose, and fretted one into another with
great excoriation. --Wiseman.
3. To be agitated; to be in violent commotion; to rankle; as,
rancor frets in the malignant breast.
4. To be vexed; to be chafed or irritated; to be angry; to
utter peevish expressions.
He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground.
--Dryden.
2. (Arch.) An ornament consisting of smmall fillets or slats
intersecting each other or bent at right angles, as in
classical designs, or at obilique angles, as often in
Oriental art.
His lady's cabinet is a adorned on the fret,
ceiling, and chimney-piece with . . . carving.
--Evelyn.
2. Agitation of mind marked by complaint and impatience;
disturbance of temper; irritation; as, he keeps his mind
in a continual fret.
Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret. --Pope.
3. Herpes; tetter. --Dunglison.
4. pl. (Mining) The worn sides of river banks, where ores, or
stones containing them, accumulate by being washed down
from the hills, and thus indicate to the miners the
locality of the veins.