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And novv behold after my vvinters toyle, / My paynefull voyage on the boyſtrous ſea, / Of vvarres deuouring gulphes and ſteely rocks, / I bring my fraught vnto the vviſhed port / My Summers hope, my trauels ſvveet reward:
The manse is reached by a wide, straight path, so rough that to carry a fraught of water to the manse without spilling was to be superlatively good at one thing.
1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton,, volume I, Amsterdam , 1698, →OCLC, page 175:
Thoſe morning haunts are vvhere they ſhould be at home, not ſleeping, or concocting the ſurfets of an irregular Feaſt, but up and ſtirring, in Summer as oft vvith the Bird that firſt rouſes, or not much tardier, to reade good Authors, or cauſe them to be read, till the Attention be vveary, or Memory have its full fraught:
The ſhips are ſafe thou ſaiſt, and richly fraught?
1603, Francis Dillingham, “The 15. Reason: Diuinitie”, in A Quartron of Reasons, Composed by Doctor Hill, Unquartered, and Prooued a Quartron of Follies, : Iohn Legat, printer to the Uniuersitie of Cambridge nd are to be sold by Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 68:
I denie that the Proteſtant doth not meddle vvith theſe things, but fraughteth his ſhippe onely vvith faith, and neuer beateth his braine about ſinnes.
A figurative use.
1625, Peter Heylyn, “Of Peruana”, in Μικρόκοσμος . A Little Description of the Great World., revised edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, and are to be sold by W. Turner and T. Huggins, →OCLC, page 801:
Tvvo Marchants departing from Spaine to get gold, touched vpon part of Barbary; vvhere the other fraughteth his veſſel vvith ſheep:
Therefore in ſayinge that he ſeeketh to none in heauẽ ſaue only god, he reiecteth all the counterfet Gods with which the comon errour & foly of yͤ world fraughteth heauen.
1611, Iohn Speed , “Henrie, the First of that Name, the Fortieth One Monarch of the English-men:”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans., London: William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble,, →OCLC, book IX (), paragraph 59, page 442, column 2:
eetooke chiefe pleaſure to reſide in his nevv Palace, vvhich himſelfe built at Oxford, both for the delight he had in learned men, himſelfe being very learned, and for the vicinity of his nevv Parke at VVoodſtocke, vvhich hee had fraught vvith all kind of ſtrange beaſts, vvherein hee much delighted, as Lyons, Leopards, Lynces, Camels, Porcupines, and the like.
1645, Jos Hall, “Sect XII. Consideration of the Benefits of Poverty.”, in The Remedy of Discontentment: Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever Condition:, London: J. G. for Nath Brooks,, published 1652, →OCLC, pages 60–61:
hen his better earnings have fraught his trencher vvith a vvarm and pleaſing morſell, and his cup vvith a ſtronger liquor, hovv chearfully is he affected vvith that happy variety; and in the ſtrength of it digeſts many of his thinner meales?
a.1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Cornwall”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: J G W L and W G, published 1662, →OCLC, page 202:
King Henry full fraught all thoſe vvith vvealth and revvards, vvhom he retained in his imployment.
Had I byn any God of povver, I vvould / Have ſuncke the Sea vvithin the Earth, or ere / It ſhould the good Ship ſo haue ſvvallovv'd, and / The fraughting Soules within her.
1576, George Gascoigne, “The Fruites of Warre, Written vppon This Theame, Dulce Bellum Inexpertis,”, in The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire., London: H Bynneman for Richard Smith,, →OCLC, stanza 107, page cxxxvj:
n the narrovv ſeas that part / The French and Engliſh, there miſcarried / A veſſel of our country richly fraught;
1756 February 3 (first performance), Samuel Foote, “Prologue, Spoken by Mr. Foote”, in The Englishman Return’d from Paris, Being the Sequel to The Englishman in Paris. A Farce, London: Paul Vaillant,, published 1756, →OCLC, page :
Of all the Paſſions that poſſeſs Mankind, / The Love of Novelty rules moſt the Mind, / In ſearch of this from Realm to Realm vve roam, / Our Fleets come fraught vvith every Folly home.
The peasant without fear shall guide / Down smooth canal or river wide / His painted bark of cane, / Fraught, for some proud bazaar's arcades, / With chestnuts from his native shades, / And wine, and milk, and grain.
Fayre boſome fraught vvith vertues richeſt treſure, / The neaſt of loue, the lodging of delight: / the bovvre of bliſſe, the paradice of pleaſure, / the ſacred harbour of that heuenly ſpright.
1660 August 8 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar); first published 1715, Robert South, “A Discourse Preached at St. Mary’s Church in Oxon, before the University, on the 29th of July 1660, being the Time of the King’s Commissioners Meeting there, soon after the Restauration, for the Visitation of that University”, in Twelve Sermons Preached at Several Times, and upon Several Occasions, volume IV, London: G. James, for Jonah Bowyer, →OCLC, page 3:
In this Chapter vve have a large Diſcourſe from the great Preacher of Righteouſneſs; A Diſcourſe fraught vvith all the commending Excellencies of Speech;
The government and the legislature, each in its own sphere, is deeply responsible for the continuance of a state of things which is fraught with danger to the State.
1860, Isaac Taylor, “Essay V. Epidemic Whims.”, in Ultimate Civilization and Other Essays, London: Bell and Daldy, →OCLC, section I, page 257:
He is a man of the meditative claſs:—he walks the ſtreets abſtractedly:—as he goes he digeſts enterpriſes, fraught with world-wide benefits.
1936, Rollo Ahmed, “The Earliest Records of Black Magic”, in The Black Art, London: Senate, Studio Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, part I, page 22:
The simplest action was fraught with danger, and could only be accomplished with the aid of talismans and counter-spells, and people lived in constant dread of the unknown.
1878, Benj G. Herre, “Wyman’s Ordeal. A Partisan Tale.”, in Eratics: Or, Love Stories, Lancaster, Pa.: Jno. H. Pearsol,, →OCLC, scene iii, stanza XXI, page 180:
Nor less her son the like encouraged she / To party bitterness, that was in her, / Ev'n of the fraughtest growth that well could be, / Surpassing most of men's,
2010, Philip Withington, “The Rise and Fall of ‘Commonwealth’”, in Society in Early Modern England: The Vernacular Origins of Some Powerful Ideas, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, part II (Keywords), page 166:
In all of those respects it was a vocabulary that accommodated within itself (so to speak) the fraught transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, or 'community' to 'society'. This transition was only made fraughter for contemporaries – and muddier for historians – by the politicization of commonwealth after 1640 and its sequestration by ideologues and partisans.
2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner’s punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport section), London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-24:
But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low. With Pistorius, that task is fraught.
2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A Royal Occasion as Heritage Projects Honoured: Sudbury Hill”, in Rail, number 972, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 57:
Installing lift shafts in station buildings which were not originally designed to accommodate them can be a fraught exercise, but a necessary one if the legitimate aspiration of the travelling public for step-free access is to be achieved. At Sudbury Hill, on London Underground's Piccadilly Line extension out to the north-western suburbs, Transport for London has achieved this with aplomb.
Come ſir, I vvould you vvould make vſe of that good vviſedome vvhereof I knovv you are fraught, and put avvay theſe diſpoſitions, that of late tranſforme you from vvhat you rightly are.
So, in naturall Hiſtorie, vvee ſee there hath not beene that choiſe and iudgement vſed, as ought to haue beene, as may appeare in the vvritings of Plinius, Cardanus, Albertus, and diuers of the Arabians, being fraught vvith much fabulous matter, a great part, not onely vntryed, but notoriouſly vntrue, to the great derogation of the credite of naturall Philoſophie,
The firſt Ingredient, tovvards the Art of Canting, is a competent Share of Invvard Light: that is to ſay, a large Memory, plentifully fraught vvith Theological Polyſyllables, and myſterious Texts from holy VVrit, applied and digeſted by thoſe Methods, and Mechanical Operations already related:
The desert Pelican had built her nest / In that deep solitude. / And now returned from distant flight / Fraught with the river stream, / Her load of water had disburthened there. / Her young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness;