/fɹɪl/
OriginOf uncertain origin.
- A strip of pleated fabric or paper used as decoration or trim.
“1777, Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth), Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, London: G. Robinson and J. Bew, Volume 5, Chapter 114, p. 163,
[…] one of her husband Jeffery’s s”
“His face had fallen in, and was unshorn; his frill and neckcloth hung limp under his bagging waistcoat.”
“Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you w”
- figurativelyA substance or material on the edge of something, resembling such a strip of fabric.
“Nothing moved in sky, land, or sea, except a frill of milkwhite foam along the nearer angles of the shore, shreds of which licked the contiguous stones like tongues.”
“She had noticed yesterday that a few tiny corkscrew tendrils had come right through some cracks in the scullery ceiling and all the windows of the lean-to had a thick frill of ruffled green.”
“[T]he bright frills of the winter fungi on the blotched trunks of the trees;”
- A wrinkled edge to a film.
- figurativelySomething extraneous or not essential; something purely for show or effect; a luxury.
“My name is Sammy Carleton. Not ‘Mr.’ Carleton, but just plain Sammy. I’m a regular no-nonsense man with no fancy frills about me. I want you to call me Sammy.”
“Every possible economy was carefully investigated and unnecessary expense, however small, eliminated. The company had no money to spare on "frills."”
“Falling in love, I said. Falling into it, we all did then, one way or another. How could he have made such light of it? Sneered even. As if it was trivial for us, a frill, a whim.”
- The relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles, with either a bony support or a cartilaginous one.
“A large admiral lizard leapt up on a rail, stood on hind legs with fore legs raised like hands and watched for a moment […], then loped down the cess-path with arms swinging and iridescent frill flyin”
“She reminded Bojan of a desert lizard throwing up its frill to frighten predators.”
- Synonym of armilla.
- transitiveTo make into a frill.
- intransitiveTo become wrinkled.
- transitiveTo provide or decorate with a frill or frills; to turn back in crimped plaits.
“And I will be bold to ſay my two girls have had a pretty good education, and capacity, [...] they underſtand their needle, breadſtitch, croſs and change, and all manner of plain-work; they can pink, p”
“1863, Charles Dickens, Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings, Chapter 4, in All the Year Round, Volume 10, Extra Christmas Number, 3 December, 1863, p. 35,
Mrs. Sandham, formerly Kate Barford, is working at a baby”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo shake or shiver as with cold (with reference to a hawk).
- intransitive, obsoleteTo cry (with reference to a bird of prey).
“1688, Randle Holme, The Academy of Armory, Chester: for the author, Book 2, Chapter 13, “Of the Voices of Birds,” p. 310,
The Eagle Frilleth, or Scriketh
The Hawk, as Falcon, Gawshawk, and all such Bi”
Formsfrills(plural) · frills(present, singular, third-person) · frilling(participle, present) · frilled(participle, past) · frilled(past)