a. [f. FRET v.1 + -FUL.]
† 1. a. Corrosive, irritating, lit. and fig. b. Irritated, inflamed. Obs.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 403.
| Queen. Away: Though parting be a fretfull corosiue, | |
| It is applyed to a deathfull wound. |
1594. Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, I. 56. More sharpe, and fretfull to their fingers than their vsuall morter.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 126. The ulcer had no uncommon appearance; it was of the size of a shilling, with fretful edges, and every where covered with granulations.
2. Disposed to fret, irritable, peevish, ill-tempered; impatient, restless.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 20. A Tale … whose lightest word would … make … each particular haire to stand on end, Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 96. In so much as he became fretfull, and pettish.
1739. Cibber, Apol. (1756), II. 34. The fretful Temper of a Friend, like the Personal Beauty of a fine Lady, by Use, and Cohabitation, may be brought down, to give us neither Pain, nor Pleasure.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 208–9. The cynocephalus, that of all other apes is most unlike man in form, and approaches nearer the dog in face, resembles also the brute in nature, being wild, restless, and impelled by a fretful impetuosity.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 528. The child had become more silly and fretful.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 83. Where a horse continues uneasy and fretful with the bit for a long time, the mouth-piece is most likely ill sutied to him, and should, if possible, be changed.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., III. ii. Men of second-rate faculties, on the contrary, are fretful and nervous, fidgeting after a celebrity which they do not estimate by their own talents, but by the talents of some one else.
a. 1848. Rossetti, Blessed Damozel, vi.
| Beneath, the tides of day and night | |
| With flame and darkness ridge | |
| The void, as low as where this earth | |
| Spins like a fretful midge. |
3. a. Of water, etc.: Agitated, troubled, broken into waves. b. Of the wind: Blowing in frets or gusts; gusty.
1613–16. W. Browne, Brit. Past. II. iv. 691.
| A wooddy hill there stood, at whose low feet | |
| Two goodly streames in one broad channell meet, | |
| Whose fretfull waues beating against the hill, | |
| Did all the bottome with soft muttrings fill. |
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 322. Several times in the day I swept with my telescope from the garrison, as near as I could imagine, the line of the horizon, but it was so extremely black, fretful, and hazy, that nothing could be seen.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, trans. Kerner, The Lover’s Farewell, Poems (1859), 122.
| Forth upon my path! I must not wait— | |
| Bitter blows the fretful morning wind: | |
| Warden, wilt thou softly close the gate | |
| When thou knowest I leave my heart behind? |
1887. Pall Mall G., 25 July, 2/2. A pretty picture framed by the fretful sea and the cloudless sky.
4. Characterized by or apt to produce fretting.
1737. Thomson, Mem. Ld. Talbot, 339.
| Meanwhile the kindred Souls of every Land, | |
| (Howe’er divided in the fretful Days | |
| Of Prejudice and Error) mingled now. |
1798. Wordsw., Tintern Abbey.
| When the fretful stir | |
| Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, | |
| Have hung upon the beatings of my heart, | |
| How oft, in spirit, have I turn’d to thee, | |
| O sylvan Wye! |
1852. Blackie, Study Lang., 33. To pick words out of a dictionary is fretful, and the choice slippery, sometimes blind.
1890. H. D. Rawnsley, A Welcome to Stanley, in Murray’s Mag., VII. June, 737.
| But most the forest memories all must fade, | |
| The fearsome, fretful, forest, dank and deep. |
Hence Fretfully adv., in a fretful manner; Fretfulness, the quality or condition of being fretful.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 274. Anger is a disease of a weake mind which cannot moderate it selfe but is easily inflamed, such are women, childeren, and weake and cowardly men, and this we tearme fretfulnesse or pettishnes.
1789. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, April. Really frightened at she knew not what, she fretfully exclaimed, ‘Ver well, sir!—I wish I had not comm down!’
1843. J. Martineau, Chr. Life (1867), 239. The peace of God full often survives the lapse of meaner comforts, and drives away every trace of fretfulness from age and terror from death.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 174. The Carews rode fretfully up and down the river banks, probing the mud with their lances to find footing for their horses.
1880. Ouida, Moths, I. ix. 293. ‘What is the use of putting off?’ said her mother fretfully. ‘You will be ill; you are ill.’
