/fɹɪst/
OriginFrom Middle English *frist, frest, first, furst, from Old English fierst (“period, space of time, time, respite, truce”), from Proto-Germanic *fristiz, *frestą (“date, appointed time”), from Proto-Indo-European *pres-, *per- (“forward, forth, over, beyond”). Cognate with North Frisian ferst, frest (“period, time”), German Frist (“period, deadline, term”), Swedish frist (“deadline, respite, reprieve, time-limit”), Icelandic frestur (“period”). See also first.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableA certain space or period of time; respite.
- UK, countable, dialectal, uncountableTime allotted for repayment; a term (in which a debt is to be repaid); a delay; respite; suspension.
“His was a short frist (He had a short life).”
“Yitt they caused the lordis that war vpoun on the panell, that schould have thoalled judgment, to find cautioun everie ane of thame, vnder the paine of certane soumes, to answer at ane certane apoynte”
“All Ills are good a frist.”
- UK, countable, dialectal, uncountableCredit; trust.
“Sald tham to fryst to a man of the Hag, […]
Sold them to frist to a man of The Hague, […]”
“Ane dyvour coffe, that wirry hen, / Distroyis the honor of our natioun, / Takis gudis to frist fra fremmit men, / And brekis his obligatioun.
One bankrupt rouge , that wirry hen, / destroys the honor ”
“Credit and frist is quyte away, / No thing is lent bot for usure; […]”
- UK, dialectalTo grant respite; especially, to give a debtor credit or time for payment.
- UK, ambitransitive, dialectalTo defer; postpone.
“Now, in the strength of Jesus, dispatch your business; that debt is not forgiven, but fristed: death hath not bidden you farewel, but hath only left you for a short season.”
“Na, na, lassie. Dinna be too confident. “What's fristed is no forgotten."”
“Alexander's early backsliding, when "he thrawed his mouth" at the minister — a sin beside which the modern lèse majesté seems venial, —had been fristed but not forgiven, and again he was summoned to a”
Formsfrists(plural) · frists(present, singular, third-person) · fristing(participle, present) · fristed(participle, past) · fristed(past)