fritter
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Vulgar Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry.
For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) enPR: frĭtʹər, IPA(key): /ˈfɹɪtɚ/, [ˈfɹɪɾɚ]
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)
Noun
[edit]fritter (plural fritters)
- A dish made by deep-frying food coated in batter.
- A fragment; a shred; a small piece.
- 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
- And cut whole giants into fritters.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]dish made by deep-frying
|
Verb
[edit]fritter (third-person singular simple present fritters, present participle frittering, simple past and past participle frittered)
- (intransitive, often with about, around, or away) To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.
- I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.
- He can’t figure out how to finish the paper he’s writing, so he’s resorted to frittering with the fonts.
- It is quite possible to fritter one's life away in answer to the endless calls of others.
- (transitive) To sinter.
- (transitive) To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.
- (transitive) To break into small pieces or fragments.
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
- Break all nerves, and fritter all their sense.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to waste time
|
sinter — see sinter
to cut meat into small pieces
|
to break into small pieces
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
[edit]French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]fritter
- (transitive) to fritter / sinter
Conjugation
[edit]Conjugation of fritter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive | simple | fritter | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | frittant /fʁi.tɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | fritté /fʁi.te/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | fritte /fʁit/ |
frittes /fʁit/ |
fritte /fʁit/ |
frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/ |
frittez /fʁi.te/ |
frittent /fʁit/ |
imperfect | frittais /fʁi.tɛ/ |
frittais /fʁi.tɛ/ |
frittait /fʁi.tɛ/ |
frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/ |
frittiez /fʁi.tje/ |
frittaient /fʁi.tɛ/ | |
past historic2 | frittai /fʁi.te/ |
frittas /fʁi.ta/ |
fritta /fʁi.ta/ |
frittâmes /fʁi.tam/ |
frittâtes /fʁi.tat/ |
frittèrent /fʁi.tɛʁ/ | |
future | fritterai /fʁi.tʁe/ |
fritteras /fʁi.tʁa/ |
frittera /fʁi.tʁa/ |
fritterons /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/ |
fritterez /fʁi.tʁe/ |
fritteront /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/ |
fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/ |
fritterait /fʁi.tʁɛ/ |
fritterions /fʁi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
fritteriez /fʁi.tə.ʁje/ |
fritteraient /fʁi.tʁɛ/ | |
(compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | fritte /fʁit/ |
frittes /fʁit/ |
fritte /fʁit/ |
frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/ |
frittiez /fʁi.tje/ |
frittent /fʁit/ |
imperfect2 | frittasse /fʁi.tas/ |
frittasses /fʁi.tas/ |
frittât /fʁi.ta/ |
frittassions /fʁi.ta.sjɔ̃/ |
frittassiez /fʁi.ta.sje/ |
frittassent /fʁi.tas/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | fritte /fʁit/ |
— | frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/ |
frittez /fʁi.te/ |
— | |
compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
Further reading
[edit]- “fritter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪtə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɪtə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English transitive verbs
- en:Foods
- en:Snacks
- English terms with early reduction of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French verbs
- French transitive verbs
- French verbs with conjugation -er
- French first group verbs