[f. FRET v.1 + -ING2.] That frets, in senses of the vb.
1. Gnawing, corroding, consuming, wasting.
a. in material sense. Obs. or arch.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 158. Of alle fretynge venymes þe vilest is þe scorpion.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 203. Eruginosa is lijk þe rust of copur, & þis maner of colre is miche freting & scharp.
1570. G. Ellis, Lament. Lost Sheep, lxxvii.
| Thou drankest freting vineger with gall, | |
| To make their bitter waters hunny-sweet, | |
| That spungy moysture, that in deadly thrall, | |
| For thy pale lips the sonnes of men thought meete. |
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lvi. 223. Cast into fretting and devouring ulcers … it stayeth the same.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. iii. 151.
| Command these fretting waters from your eies | |
| With a light heart. |
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 257. Some other thing that will not be injured by the fretting Brine.
1676. D’Urfey, Madam Fickle, IV. i. Dor. Now has he a fretting Feaver on him.
1685. Boyle, Salub. Air, 65. The Liquor Chymists call aqua regis, which by its fretting quality corrodes and dissolves Gold.
1769. J. Brown, Dict. Bible, s.v. A fretting leprosy is one which, by prickling and rankling, wastes the flesh.
1813. T. Busby, Lucretius, I. 361.
| To watery drops the hardest marbles yield, | |
| And lessening ploughshares own the fretting field. |
1873. Farrar, Silence & V., iii. (1875), 61. All these gifts combined saved her not from being eaten away by that fretting leprosy of her favourite sins.
b. in immaterial sense.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. iii. 51. Ye ben lene Caitifs withouten flesshe and that is of youre owne fretyng hertes.
c. 1450. Lydg. & Burgh, Secrees, 1573.
| The sharp corosye of fretyng detraccioun | |
| ffirst I feere. | |
| Ibid., 1971. | |
| And delyuer in the heed, | |
| ffroom fretyng malencolye. |
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXVIII. iii.
| That while the young shall over-live the old, | |
| And of their brood some yet shalbe unborn, | |
| These memories, in memory enrold, | |
| By fretting time may never thence be worn. |
1652. R. Boreman, Countr. Catech., x. 28. Sinne, which is of that fretting nature, that wasting power [etc.].
1682. O. N., Boileau’s Lutrin, IV. 332.
| There will we sit, Chat, Eat, Drink, Laugh grow fat, | |
| Exiling fretting Care, that kills a Cat! |
1751. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. iv. 75. By industry we shut out many implacable enemies to our repose, many fretting desires, and sorrowful reflections, and turbulent passions, and violent temptations.
1878. Morley, Vauvenargues, Crit. Misc., 7. If poverty means pinching and fretting need of money, it may not debase the soul in any vital sense, but it is extremely likely to wear away a very priceless kind of delicacy in a man’s estimate of human relations and their import.
c. intr. for refl. Decaying.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 46. lxxxvi.
| And curiosity his steps hath led | |
| To gaze on some old arch or fretting wall. |
2. Chafing, fretful. Of a horse: Impatient. Also transf.
1587. Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 43.
| Full sore she feard her flanks, and thought shee sawe | |
| Her friende pursue her on his fretting steed, | |
| And how he did his wrathful weapon draw | |
| To take reuenge of that her cursed deed. |
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. ix. § 2. When wee are in a fretting moode at the Church of Rome.
1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., IV. 179. Entering freely, as far as he dared, into familiar and friendly conversation with the angry fretting King.
1883. Pall Mall G., 30 Nov., 4/2. Slow barges … move on more speedily behind a fretting tug.
3. Agitated, frothing. Of wine: That is undergoing a second fermentation.
1567. Turberv., Epit. & Sonn. (1837), 342.
| And yet no dread of doubtfull death, | |
| no force of fretting fome, | |
| Nor wrath of weltring waues could stay | |
| those martiall mates at home. |
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, III. iv. (1734), 300. Just as a Bottle of Cyder or fretting Wine, when the Cork is pulled out, will fly up, fume, and rage.
1763. J. Clubbe, Physiognomy, 16. Anger is a kind of yeast in lumpish constitutions, that ferments, and gives a frothy, fretting volatility to the sluggish matter.
b. Of the wind: Blowing in frets or gusts.
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), 51. It was a maine storme, and a furious fretting wind, and in gustes there came most violent flawes.
Hence Frettingly adv., in a fretting manner.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. V., Wks. (1711), 107. In Musical Instruments, if a String jar and be out of Tune, we do not frettingly break it, but leisurely veer it about to a Concord.
1866. Mrs. M. J. Preston, Beechenbrook.
| On tiptoe,—the summer wind lifting his hair, | |
| With nostril expanded, and scenting the air | |
| Like a mettled young war-horse that tosses his mane, | |
| And frettingly champs at the bit and the rein. |
