fretten

From Middle English freten, from Old English freten, ġefreten (“eaten”), past participle of Old English fretan (“to devour, eat up, consume, break, eat into”). More at fret.

fretten (comparative more fretten, superlative most fretten)

1. (obsolete) Marked.

   pock-fretten (“marked with the smallpox”)

fretten

1. alternative past participle of fret

• IPA^(key): /ˈfrɛtə(n)/
• Rhymes: -ɛtən

Variant of vreten (“to eat”), possibly from cognate West Frisian frette or influenced by other cognate forms (compare German fressen, Westphalian Low German friätten, northern Low German frett, third-person singular of freten).

fretten

1. (transitive, informal) to eat

• opfretten

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

fretten

1. plural of fret

From Middle High German vret(t)en, vraten, from Old High German *fretten, fratōn (“to chafe, rub”), derived from frat (“sore”). Cognate with Luxembourgish frieden (“to touch”). Further origin unknown. The word cannot be immediately cognate with English fret, which instead corresponds to German fressen. Origin from a derivative of Latin fricāre (cf. Italian frettare) is also unlikely because of the underlying a-vocalism.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtn̩

fretten (weak, third-person singular present frettet, past tense frettete, past participle gefrettet, auxiliary haben)

1. (Austria, Southern Germany, reflexive) to struggle with a very tedious task
2. (obsolete) to chafe, make sore

• abfretten
• auffretten
• dahinfretten
• durchfretten

• “fretten” in Duden online
• “fretten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

fretten

1. Alternative form of freten (“to bind”)