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Glite Dictionary
😟 To worry 🎸 A metal strip 🎸 To add metal strips 💧 To wear away 😟 A state of worry 🪨 A worn spot 🎨 To decorate 🟦 A geometric design
to fret

to fret

1 9.5
Decorate with a repeating pattern of straight lines
  • verb
  • /frɛt/
translation icon : adornar con grecas
  • The ancient temple's walls were beautifully fretted with intricate geometric designs.

Examples

  • "We'll get you set proper, don't you fret.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The ukulele is a small, fretted, guitar-like instrument, typically strung with four strings that are either plucked individually or strummed.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Taeuber also fretted over the figure's pelvis and raised this section a number of times.

    Academic text (2014)

  • By the final stanza, an image metaphor appears when the "sharp-fretted" canyon peaks are called "golden-roofed cathedrals."

    Academic text (2004)

  • This most excellent canopy, the air, look you... this brave overhanging firmament... this majestical roof fretted with golden fire...

    Hamlet (1990)

  • A crescendo of susurrations swished through the vaulted chamber fretted with incandescent quasars.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • He was smart and clean and fretted all over with careful bits of pure gold, in a wristband timepiece and buttons and a slender pin for his modern tie, that tailored spill of color men wear in this age, as if to let us grab them all the more easily by its noose.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The artisan expertly fretted the wooden panel, creating a stunning pattern that captivated onlookers.

  • She admired the fretted details of the jewelry box, which featured a delicate interlaced pattern around its edges.

Synonyms

to reed
vsto fret
  • Specialized
9.9

To make parallel raised lines on a surface

decorates with repeated interlaced geometric patterns rather than parallel grooves

Idioms

to fret the gizzard
  • Informal
9.9

To worry too much about things you cannot control

Compounds

Greek fret
8.4

A repeating design of vertical and horizontal lines that people use to decorate buildings and objects

How Ornate

to gild
5 7.0
to embellish
19 6.1
to fret
1 9.5
to adorn
45 4.9
to decorate
226 1.9

Surface Forms

fret infinitive
fret past
fret past participle
fretting present participle
frets third person singular

Etymology

Fret meaning 'to decorate with a repeated pattern' comes from an old idea of a 'narrow band' or strip used as an ornament, so to fret something is to add a band of repeating design.