frizzle

English

Alternative forms

• frizle, frisle, frizel, frizil

Etymology

From frizz +‎ -le. Cognate with Old Frisian frisle, fresle (“head of the hair, lock of hair”). More at frizz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɪzəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzəl

Verb

frizzle (third-person singular simple present frizzles, present participle frizzling, simple past and past participle frizzled)

1. (transitive) To fry something until crisp and curled.
   • 1884, Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking:

     Drain and heat it [shaved smoked beef] in one tablespoonful of hot butter, to curl or frizzle it.

2. (transitive) To scorch.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”

3. (intransitive) To fry noisily, sizzle.

   The bacon frizzled in the pan.

4. (transitive, intransitive) To curl or crisp, as hair; to frizz; to crinkle.
   • 1599 November (date written; published 1600), Thomas Dekker, “The Pleasant Comoedie of Old Fortunatus. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […], volume I, London: John Pearson […], published 1873, →OCLC, Act [I], scene [ii], page 98:

     Now am I prowder of this pouertie, which I know is mine owne, than a wayting gentlewoman is, of a frizled groateſworth of haire, that neuer grewe on her head: […]

Noun

frizzle (plural frizzles)

1. A curl; a lock of hair crisped.
   • 1909 December 29, Jack London, “The Whale Tooth”, in South Sea Tales, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, page 61:

     The frizzle-headed man-eaters were loath to leave their fleshpots so long as the harvest of human carcases was plentiful. Sometimes, when the harvest was too plentiful, they imposed on the missionaries by letting the word slip out that on such a day there would be a killing and a barbecue.

Anagrams

• Fizzler, fizzler