rare. [f. prec. adj.]
1. To French it: to speak French. nonce-use.
1639. Fuller, Holy Warre (1647), IV. xvi. 196. But God defeated their designe; for the Turks could not French it so handsomely, but that they were discovered.
2. trans. To teach (a person) French. nonce-use.
1831. Examiner, 814/1. Where she had been Frenched, danced, and taught to draw.
1861. [see DEPORTMENTED].
3. To render into French or give a French form to.
1887. The Saturday Review, LXIV. 24 Sept., 435/2. The inclusion of ‘I love you’ (quite correctly Frenched ‘Je vous aime’) under the head of ‘Idiomatical phrases,’ ‘phrases idiomatiques,’ ‘caps’ us, as they would say in Yorkshire, altogether.
1890. Pall Mall G., 5 Aug., 3/2. Monte Silvio … was Frenched into Mont Cervin.
† 4. (See FRENCHED ppl. a.) Obs.
5. Cookery. (See quot.) ? U.S.
1895. Standard Dict., French v. To prepare, as a chop, by partially cutting the meat from the shank and leaving bare the bone so as to fit it for convenient handling.
