freat, a weak place or blemish in a bow. Ascham, Toxophilus, pp. 114, 120; as vb., to injure, damage, Surrey, Praise of Mean Estate, 4; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 27. A Yorkshire word (EDD.). OF. frete (fraite), a breach, injury, see La Curne (s.v. Fraicte), and Didot (s.v. Fraite).
freke, a warrior, fighting-man. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 68; Grimald, Epitaph on Sir J. Wilford, 13; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 112. ME. freke, a warrior, a man (Dict. M. and S.), OE. freca (Beowulf).
fremman, a stranger. Jacob and Esau, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 210. For fremd man; ‘Fremd’ is in common prov. use for strange, foreign, in Scotland and the north of England down to Northampton (EDD.). ME. fremede, foreign (Chaucer). OE. fremede.
frenne, a stranger, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 28. ‘Fren’ is given as a Caithness word in EDD. ME. frend, foreign (Plowman’s Tale, 626). See above.
frequent, crowded, well-attended. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 3. 1; Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 25; f. to, addicted to, Wint. Tale, iv. 2. 36; frequent with, familiar with, Shak. Sonnet 117. L. frequens, crowded (Cicero).
freshet, a stream or brook of fresh water. Hakluyt, Voy. i. 113, l. 4 from bottom; Milton, P. R. ii. 345.
fret, to wear away; to chafe, rub; ‘Frets like a gummed velvet’, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 2. (Velvet, when stiffened with gum, quickly rubbed and fretted itself out.)
friar’s lantern, Ignis fatuus, will-of-the-wisp. Milton, L’Allegro, 104. [Scott in Marmion, iv. i, following Milton, has taken the ‘friar’ to be Friar Rush, who had nothing to do with the Ignis fatuus, but was the hero of a popular story—a demon disguised as a friar.]
frim, vigorous; ‘My frim and lusty flank’, Drayton, Pol. xiii. 397; abundant in sap, juicy, id., Owle, 5; Worlidge, Syst. Agric, 224. In gen. prov. use in England in the sense of vigorous, healthy, thriving, in good condition, luxuriant in growth; also, juicy, succulent (EDD.). OE. *frym, cogn. w. freme, good, strenuous (BT.).
frisle, to ‘frizzle’, to curl the hair in small crisp curls. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1145; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, xii. 100. See EDD. (s.v. Frizzle, vb.2).