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Glite Dictionary
to french-fry

to french-fry

3 2.6
To cook food in hot oil until it becomes crisp and golden
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈfrɛnʧ fraɪ/
  • US
translation icon : freír
  • She loves to french-fry vegetables to bring out their flavors and add a crispy texture.
  • French-fried onions
  • French-fried potatoes

Examples

  • If it wasn't for me, you'd be a dead French fry.

    Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

  • He took me into Tail o' the Gator and ordered us some French-fried alligator tail.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • She picked up a French fry and ate it.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • All right, you got your French-fried frog legs on Cotton

    The Muppet Movie (1979)

  • She fed the fire letters, one by one, the way her girlfriend had once fed her french fries.

    Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994)

  • You wanna French fry?

    Fiction book (1996)

  • I French-fried frog legs barbecued - Oh.

    The Muppet Movie (1979)

  • Kermit the Frog, symbol of Doc Hopper's French-fried frog legs.

    The Muppet Movie (1979)

  • - Hi, I'm Doc Hopper, invitin' you to hop on down and get some Hopper's French-fried frog legs.

    The Muppet Movie (1979)

  • To make homemade snacks, you should french-fry the potatoes until they are golden brown.

Synonyms

to fry
vsto french-fry
283 1.0

Cook food in hot oil or fat in a pan

requires immersing rather than pan cooking and stresses golden crispness
to deep-fry
vsto french-fry
8 2.8

Cook food by putting it completely in hot oil

allows immersion but focuses on achieving crisp golden brown results
to fry up
vsto french-fry
7 2.9

Cook food in hot oil or fat

specifies immersion cooking and crisp browning rather than general cooking
to deep-fat-fry
vsto french-fry
1 3.3

To cook food by putting it completely in hot oil

focuses on the typical crisp golden outcome rather than immersion detail
to frizzle
vsto french-fry
1 6.8

Cook food in hot oil until it becomes brown and crispy

describes immersion cooking typically stressing crisp golden colour over curling

How Fried

to french-fry
  • US
3 2.6
to pan-fry
3 2.9
to cook
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

french-fry infinitive
french-fried past
french-fried past participle
french-frying present participle
french-fries third person singular

Morphology

french-fry = French + fry (semi-transparent) = French + fry

The verb is built on the compound 'French fry', but the French element is historical rather than a productive clue, so the cooking meaning is only partly predictable.

Etymology

French-fry comes from the older phrase French-fried, where fry means 'to cook in hot fat' and French was used to name a particular style or way of cutting and cooking food. So, to french-fry something is to 'fry' it in hot oil until it becomes crisp and golden.