frivolity 
old heads, with the /niroiity and grossness of the mob that 
exhibits and the mob that gazes at them. Emerson, Art. 
2. The act or habit of trifling ; unbecoming 
levity of mind or disposition. 
Upon his eye sate something of reproof, 
That kept at least frivolity aloof. __ 
The late Duke of Wellington, in early life, said Man 
gles, was much celebrated for his skill with the then 
fashionable toy called a bandelorum, and is said to have 
played with it in places where mckfHvoKtia were scarce- 
ly expected. Shirley Brooks, Sooner or Later, III. 89. 
= Svn Lightness, Volatility, etc. (see levity); triviality, 
puerility, trifling. Frivolity Fnvoloumcss. F rwohty of 
character or conduct ; fmolousnexs of an excuse, a pre- 
text, an argument. ... 
frivolous (friv'o-lus), . [< L. fnvolus, silly, 
empty, trifling, 'frivolous, worthless : see/ro(, 
0.1 1 Of little weight, worth, or importance ; 
not worth notice; slight; trifling; trivial: as, 
& frivolous argument; a, frivolous objection or 
pretext. 
I come about * frivolous matter, caused by as idle a re- 
port. Beau, and Fl., King and No King, ni. 2. 
Wit was his vain/riw*m* pretence 
Of pleasing others at his own expense. 
Rochester, Satire against Mankind. 
What is incurable but n frivolous habit? A fly is as un- 
tamable as a hyena. Emerton, Conduct of Life, vii. 
2. Given to trifling; characterized by unbe- 
coming levity; silly; weak. 
Loose in morals, and in manner vain, 
In conversation /ricoious, in dress 
Extreme. Camper, Task, 11. 379. 
Men first insist that women shall not pursue serious 
studies but only external accomplishments, and then they 
condemn them for being wJWwiotu and empty. 
J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 147. 
3. Specifically, in law, so clearly insufficient as 
to need no argument to show its weakness : as, 
a frivolous answer or plea.= Syn. Unimportant, 
petty, worthless, flimsy, idle, childish, puerile, foolish, 
frivolously (friv'o-lus-li), adv. In a frivolous 
or trifling manner. 
frivolousness (friv'o-lus-nes), . The quality 
of being frivolous or trifling ; want of impor- 
tance. 
Only before I leave it, I shall first mind him of one fal- 
lacy . . in accusing the fricolousnese of my digression. 
Hammond, Works, II. 132. 
By following this practice often he will become ac- 
quainted with the degrees of evidence, so as to measure 
them almost upon inspection, and judge of the weight or 
frivolousness of objections. 
A. Tucker, Light of Nature, I. i. 
=Syn. See frivolity. 
frixet, a. [A transposition of frisk.] Same as 
frisk, frisky. 
Fain would she seem all /rise and frolic still. 
Bp. Ball, Satires, VI. i. 294. 
friz, . and n. See frizz. 
frizadot, Seefrisado. 
frizelt, n. An obsolete spelling offnzzle. 
frizette (fri-zef ), [Also frisette, formerly 
frizzet; dim. of frizz.] A little frizz or curl of 
hair ; a band of frizzled hair, either natural or 
false, worn above the forehead; a bang. 
The Barber held up a looking-glass, and Margaret saw 
her hair not essentially affected by the professional en- 
deavor still as before parted on the top, and hanging in 
thick frizettes. S. Judd, Margaret, ii. 1. 
frizlingt. n. See frizzling. 
frizz, friz (friz), v. t.; pret. and L pp. frizzed, 
ppr. frizzing. [< ME. frysen = D. fnseren = 
G frisiren = Dan. frisere = Sw. frisera, dress 
the hair, < OF. f riser, frizer. frizzle, crisp, curi, 
ruffle, braid, touch lightly, graze, scratch, 1 . 
/riser, curl, = Sp. Pg. /mar, frizzle, also to 
raise the nap on frieze; usually associated 
with, and regarded as derived from, the noun 
frieze*, formerly frige, ME. fryse; but the 
meaning 'curl hair' appears to go back to 
OFries. frisle, fresle, the hair of the head, a 
lock of hair, North Fries, friessle, fressle, the 
hair, a horse's tail, mod. Fries, frisseljen, braid 
the hair, braid; an AS. "/rise, curly, is cited, 
but is not authenticated except as it may ex- 
ist in the name Frisa, Frysa, Fresa, a Friesian, 
conjectured to mean ' curly-haired.' See frieze 2 
and Friese.] 1. To curl; crisp; form into a 
mass of small, loose, crisp curls, as the hair, 
with a crisping-pin ; specifically, to crisp and 
then loosen out so as to form a light, fluffy 
mass of little curls. 
Is 't not enough you read Voltaire, 
While sneering valets frizz your hair? 
W. Whitehead, The Goat s Beard. 
2385 
2. To form into little burs, prominences, or 
knots, as the nap of cloth; raise a nap or bur 
on 3. In leather-dressing, to remove the bur, 
prominences, or roughnesses from, as chamois 
and wash-leather, by rubbing with pumice- 
stone, a bluntknife, orthelike, in order to soften 
the surface and give a uniform thickness. 
They [deer-skins and sheep-skins] have their "grain" 
surface removed, to give them greater softness and plia 
bility. This removal of the grain is ca led fnzzmg, and 
is done either with the round edge of a blunt knife o wit i 
pumice-stone. U, Dict -> m - 9A 
The treatment with the scraping-knife being generally 
not sufficient for complete frizzing, the remaining portions 
of the grain are removed with another sharp knife. 
C. T. Davis, Leather, p. 681. 
frizz, friz (friz), . {< frizz, v.] That which is 
frizzed or curled; a wig, as covered with frizzes: 
as, a frizz of hair. 
Before the curls are wellconfln'd, 
The tails fall gracefully behind ; 
While a full wilderness of friz 
Became the lawyers cunning phiz. 
W. Combe, Dr. Syntax, li. 2. 
He [Dr. Johnson], who saw in his glass how his wig be- 
came his face and his head, might easily infer that a simi- 
lar full-bottomed, well-curled friz of words would be no 
less becoming to his thoughts. Hare. 
frizzed (frizd), p. a. Having the hair curled or 
crisped into a mass of frizzes or frizzles. 
Miss Rochford, a pretty but much curled and frizzed girl 
of the period, seized upon Ally. 
Mrs. OKphant, Poor Gentleman, xxxi. 
frizzett, . See frizette. 
frizzing-machine (friz'ing-ma-shen''), n. 1. A 
machine for dressing fabrics to give them a 
frizzed, nappy, or tufted surface. 2. A wood- 
working power-tool for dressing lumber. It is 
a revolving cutter-head projecting above the 
top of a bench. 
frizzle (friz'l), v. t. ; pret. and pp. frizzled, ppr. 
frizzling. [Formerly frizle, frisle, fnzel, fnzil; 
freq. ot frizz, q. v. Cf. frizzle, n.] I. trans. I. 
To curl or crisp, as hair ; frizz. 
Her tresses troust were to beholde, 
Frizeld and fine as frenge of golde. 
Puttenham, Partheniades, vii. 
Trembling as when Apollo's golden hairs 
Are fann'd and/rizz(t in the wanton airs 
Of his own breath. Crashaw, Music s Duel. 
Her red-brown hair had been tortured and frizzled to 
look as much like an aureole as possible. 
Mrs. H. Ward, Robert Elsmere, i. 1. 
2. To curl or crisp in cooking: as,frizzled\)eei 
(dried or jerked beef sliced thin and crisped 
over the fire). 
I frizzled my pork and toasted my biscuit-chips. 
T. Winthrop, Canoe and Saddle, xn. 
frocking 
fro (fro), prep, and adv. [= Sc. fra,frae, < ME. 
fro, fra, late AS. fra (rare), < Icel. fra, prep., 
from (as adv. in phrase til ok fra, 'to and fro'), 
= Dan. fm, prep, from, adv. off, = Sw. fran, 
prep., from, /raw, adv., forward, = AS. fram, 
{t-om, E. from; thus fro is a doublet of from.} 
,t prep. From. 
Fm the bygynnyng of the world to the tyme that now is, 
Suiie ages ther habbeth y be, as sene tyme y wys. 
Robert of Gloucester, p. 9. 
Wei ny is she f alien fro the tre. 
Chaucer, Squire's Talc, 1. 428. 
far be it from your thought, and/ro my wil, 
l'o thinke that knighthood I so much should shame. 
Spenser, V. Q., I. in. 28. 
II adv. From; away; back or backward : as 
in the phrase to and fro (that is, to and from, 
forward or toward and backward). 
How that the hopur waggis til and fra. 
Chaucer, Ef eve s Tale, 1. 119. 
Thus was it spoken to and fro 
Of them that were with him, tho' 
All prively behinde his backe. 
Oower, Conf. Amant., i. 
h 
T< 
A fair, low brow, touched and crowned lightly with the 
soft haze of gold-brown locks frizzed into a delicate misti- 
ness after the ruling fashion of the hour. 
Mrs. Whitmy, Leslie Goldthwaite, vi. 
150 
Frizzled fowl, a variety of the domestic hen in which 
each feather curls outward away from the body, hncyc. 
Brit., XIX. 646. Also called frizzly. 
II. intrans. To curl ; crisp. 
May all periwigs, bobwigs, scratchwigs . . . frizzle in 
tmrKatorv ... to the end of time. 
Thackeray, Catharine, p. 491. 
frizzle (friz'l), n. [Formerly spelled frizle, 
frisle, frizel; from the verb. Cf. OFries./ns/e, 
fresle, the hair of the head, a lock of hair : see 
frizz, .] 1. A curl ; a lock of hair crisped. 
Bumbast, bolster, frisle, and perfume. 
Gascoiyne, Steele Glas (ed. Arber), Epil., p. 82. 
They [mulatto women] curie and fold the haire of their 
head making a hill in the midst like a hat, with frizzles 
round about Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 650. 
To rumple her laces, her/raJs, and her bobbins. 
Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
2. A ribbed steel plate forming part of a gun- 
lock, to receive the blow of the hammer. It 
occurs in the form of flint-lock which took the 
place of the wheel-lock. 
frizzier (friz'ler), n. One who frizzles. Imp. 
frizzling (friz 'ling), n. [Formerly frizling, 
frizeling,friziling; verbal n. of frizzle, .] The 
act or process of curling or frizzing the hair. 
Upon meretricious paintings, frislings, pouldrings, at- 
tyrings, and the like, many squander away their very 
choicest morning hours. Prynne, Histno-Mastix, I. vi. 1. 
frizzling-iron (frizaing-Hern), . [Formerly 
frizling-, friziling-iro t n.~\ A curling-iron or 
crisping-pin. 
A frizilimi yron, that women and men use about the 
curling o' their haire, or which in old time was used to 
part the haire, and drawe them pal ; in length 
Withals, Diet. (ed. 1608), p. 146. 
frizzly (friz'li), a. [< frizzle + -yi.] Loosely 
crisp; curly: as, " light, frizzly hair," Warren. 
frizzy (friz'i), a. [(frizz + -y 1 .'] Same as 
frizzly. 
Strong black grey-besprinkled hair of f risen thickness. 
Qeorge Eliot, Daniel Deronda, xi. 
By which [bridge] the spirits perverse 
With easy intercourse pass to and/ro^ ^ .. ^^ 
When tost to and fro, by the huge swelling wave, 
They rise up to heav'n, or sink down to the grave. 
Byron, Thanksgiving Hymn. 
frock 1 (frok), . [< ME. frok, frokke, froc, also 
froqjrogge (see/ro03), a frock, esp. of amonk s 
cowl or habit, < OF. /roc, F./roc, a monk's cowl 
or habit, = Pr. floe, a woolen stuff, a monk s 
cowl, < ML. floccus (also froccus, frocus, after 
the F ), a monk's cowl or habit, appar. < L. floe- 
cus, a flock (of wool), etc. : see/ocR The sense 
is like that of OHG. hroch, rodi, roc, MH(j. roc. 
G rock (ML. hrocus, roccus, rocus), a coat; but 
a derivation of OF. froc from OHG. hroch is 
not probable. The mod. F. frac, a dress-coat 
(> G. Sw. frack, a dress-coat, = Dan. frakke, 
coat), appears to be a F. reflex of the E. 
word.] 1. A garment with large sleeves worn 
by monks. 
In cotynge of his cope is more cloth y-folden 
Than was in Fraunces froc whan he hern first made. 
Piers Plowman's Crede (E. E. T. S.), 1. 292. 
Some one of the Pharasaicall sort, clad in a blacke/rocte 
or cope. Udall, On Luke xix. 
All the confraternities resort thither in solemn proces- 
sion, habited in linen frocks, girt with a cord, and tl 
heads covered with a cowl all over, that has only two holes 
before to see through. Gray, Letters, I. 71. 
2. A garment covering the body and worn by 
either sex. (a) A loose outer garment worn by work- 
men, as agricultural laborers, etc. , over their other clothes. 
Compare smock-frock. 
Beneath a cumbrous frock, that to the knees 
Invests the thriving churl, his legs appear. 
Wordsworth, Excursion, vm. 
(ft) The principal outer garment of women : a term part- 
lv abandoned in recent times for the indistinctive word 
dress and the word gown, but still retained, particularly 
in the British islands, for the outer garment, consisting of 
a bodice or waist and a skirt, worn by children. 
Whether 
The habit, hat, and feather, 
Or the frock and gypsy bonnet 
Be the neater and completes 
Tennyson, Maud, xx. 
And how could you tell it was I? Everybody wears the 
same sort of thing, tweed frock and jacket. 
Mrs. OKphant, Poor Gentleman, xxv. 
(c) Same as frock-coat, (d) In the British service, the un- 
dress regimental coat of the guards, artillery, and royal 
marines. Wilhelm, Mil. Diet. 
3 A sort of worsted netting worn by sailors, 
often in lieu of a shirt. Also called a Guernsey 
frock. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
frock 1 (frok), v. t. [</rocfci, n.] To supply or 
cover with a frock ; hence, to invest with the 
privileges of those whose distinctive dress is a 
frock, as of a monk. See frock 1 , n., 1. 
Professed so much of priesthood as might sue 
For Priest's-exemption where the layman sinned 
Got his arm f rocked which, bare, the law would bruise. 
Browning, Ring and Book, II. 181. 
frock 2 t, " [E. dial., < ME. froke, equiv. to 
frogge: see/roi/i.] A frog. 
frock-coat (frok'kot), . A body-coat, usually 
double-breasted and with a full skirt, worn by 
men : opposed to sack-coat, which has no skirt, 
and to cutaway, with short and tapering skirt. 
See coaft, 2. 
The men wore breeches and long boots, and frock-co ats 
with large metal buttons. Longfellow, Hyperion, iv. 5. 
frocking (frok'ing), n. [< frocV + -in^r 1 .] A 
fabric suitable for making frocks ; specifically, 
coarse jean or other material used for smock- 
frocks. 
My question was answered by a queer-looking old man, 
chiefly remarkable for a pair of enormous cowhide boots, 
