Definition

1. Verb:

   • To worry or be anxious: To feel or express distress, irritation, or agitation, often about something.
   • To wear away or erode: To gradually damage or destroy something by rubbing, gnawing, or chemical action.
   • To be agitated or irritated: To be in a state of constant, nagging annoyance or disturbance.
   • To decorate with a repeated pattern: To ornament with a design of interlaced lines.

2. Noun:

   • A state of worry or irritation: A feeling of agitation or anxious distress.
   • A worn or eroded spot: An area where material has been gradually worn away.
   • A ridge on a stringed instrument: One of the raised lines on the neck of a guitar, lute, etc., against which the strings are pressed to change the pitch.
   • An ornamental pattern: A decorative design of repeated straight lines that intersect, often at right angles.

Usage Examples

• Verb (to worry):
  • Try not to fret about things you cannot change.
  • She fretted over the details of the presentation all night.
• Verb (to erode):
  • Acid rain can fret away the surface of the stone.
  • The constant friction had fretted a groove into the wood.
• Noun (worry):
  • He was in a terrible fret before his job interview.
• Noun (ridge on instrument):
  • The guitarist placed his finger just behind the third fret.
• Noun (pattern):
  • The antique box was adorned with an intricate fret.

Advanced Usage

• "to fret over": To worry or be anxious about a specific thing.
  • Parents often fret over their children's safety.
• "to fret away": To waste or consume something, especially time or health, through worry or erosion.
  • He fretted away his youth worrying about the future.
  • The river had fretted away the riverbank over centuries.

Variants and Related Words

• Fretful (adj): Inclined to fret; anxious, irritable, or complaining.
  • The tired child became fretful.
• Fretwork (n): Ornamental work consisting of interlacing or perforated patterns, often in wood.
  • The balcony was decorated with beautiful wooden fretwork.

Synonyms

• Verb (worry): Worry, agonize, brood, anguish.
• Verb (erode): Erode, corrode, wear away, gnaw, eat away.
• Noun (worry): Agitation, anxiety, distress, stew, sweat.
• Noun (ridge): Bar, ridge.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Fret about/over: To be anxiously concerned with.
  • There's no point fretting over spilled milk.
• Fret away: To waste or be consumed by worry or erosion (as shown in Advanced Usage).

Related Idioms

• Fret and fume: To be visibly and noisily agitated or angry.
  • He sat in the traffic jam, fretting and fuming about being late.

Noun

1. a small bar of metal across the fingerboard of a musical instrument; when the string is stopped by a finger at the metal bar it will produce a note of the desired pitch
2. an ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines (often in relief)
   • there was a simple fret at the top of the walls
3. a spot that has been worn away by abrasion or erosion
4. agitation resulting from active worry
   • don't get in a stew
   • he's in a sweat about exams

Verb

1. wear away or erode
2. remove soil or rock
   • Rain eroded the terraces
3. cause friction
   • my sweater scratches
4. be too tight; rub or press
   • This neckband is choking the cat
5. decorate with an interlaced design
6. carve a pattern into
7. gnaw into; make resentful or angry
   • The injustice rankled her
   • his resentment festered
8. cause annoyance in
9. become or make sore by or as if by rubbing
10. provide (a musical instrument) with frets
    • fret a guitar
11. be agitated or irritated
    • don't fret over these small details
12. worry unnecessarily or excessively
    • don't fuss too much over the grandchildren--they are quite big now