fret

1. (transitive, obsolete or poetic) Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.Examples: "At the beginning God gaue the dome him ſelfe / That Adam and Eue and all them that ſewed, / Shuld dye down right and dwell in pyne after, / If that they touched a tree and the frute eaten, / Adam afterwarde agaynſt hys defence / freet of that frute, and forſake as it were, / The loue of our lord and his lore bothe, [...]"; "Their hearts alreadie fretted and cankered at the very roote, for the last disgrace received."; "And could we let a Light into their Bosoms, we should see them generally fretted and cankered with this secret and corroding Venom."obsoletepoetictransitive

2. (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry.Examples: "A Perſon of Honour, of a full Body abounding with ſharp Humours, was ſeized with an Herpes on his right Leg. [...] [I]t inflamed and ſwelled very much, many Wheals aroſe, and fretted one into another, with great Excoriation."; "We sometimes perform an operation on the under lip [...] in consequence of / Cancer Labii [cancer of the lips], / Which disease generally arises from the use of a pipe, and the manner in which it happens is this:—the adhesive nature of the clay of which the pipe is made, causes it to adhere to the lip; at length the cuticle becomes torn off, and the continued irritation frets the sore into true cancerous disease."; "Had Carry preferred mere wealth, weighed by such a master, to the congenial spirit of her former lover? It fretted the young man even to think of such a possibility. And the visitors had fretted him each in some special point."transitive

3. (transitive) To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.Examples: "to fret the surface of water"; "Small lightes are ſoone blown out, huge fires abide, / And with the winde in greater furie fret: / The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt."transitive

4. (transitive) In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.Examples: "Yorke hereupon conſults with his ſpeciall friends; [...] how Yorke might get the Crowne of England, and for that cauſe how to ruine or fret out the Duke of Sommerſet; who ſtanding, they were to looke for ſtrong oppoſition."; "We are all hurrying down the one common stream to the great ocean of eternity: but are we performing our social duties, as citizens of the world, in sculking away into holes and corners, to fret out time and life, because God has judged fit to withdraw the favourite toy he lent us—not making us destitute—but graciously leaving in our keeping, ten thousand toys beside."transitive

5. (ambitransitive) To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.Examples: "VVhen thrid of life is almoſt fret in twaine, To giue it ſtrength breeds thankes, and wonders too."; "The Mines are cold where the outward Air comes in; but where not, warm. The greateſt trouble they have is by duſt, which ſpoileth their Lungs and Stomachs, and frets their Skins."; "You may see the surges wear and fret away the basement of the cliff against which they dash themselves, and the mass of broken rock falls into the depth and disappears, and then it is carried away by the tide as it retires."ambitransitive

6. (ambitransitive) To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.Examples: "Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie."; "For when he knew his Rival freed and gone, / He ſwells with Wrath; he makes outrageous Moan: / He frets, he fumes, he ſtares, he ſtamps the Ground; / The hollow Tow'r with Clamours rings around: [...]"ambitransitive