Also 7–9 fritt. [ad. (directly or through F. fritte) It. fritta, fem. pa. pple. of friggĕre to FRY.]
1. Glass-making. A calcined mixture of sand and fluxes ready to be melted in a crucible to form glass.
1662. Merrett, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, 17. Fritt is nothing else but a calcination of those materials which make glass.
1773. Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1840, V. 461. The proprietors being desirious of attempting a trial of white glass, the globe in question was of this frit.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 415. The product is a kind of vitreous frit, soluble in water.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 908. The founding-pots are filled up with these blocks of frit.
1870. T. W. Webb, in Eng. Mech., 21 Jan., 448/1. Specks of ‘frit’ (unmelted material in the substance of the glass).
2. Ceramics. The vitreous composition from which soft porcelain is made.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. Notes, 39. The frit of the potters … is liable to crack in drying.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 43. A mixture of one part of pure white clay, with three parts of a frit compounded of nitre, soda, alum and selenite.
1875. Fortnum, Maiolica, i. 2. Their works are consequently a kind of fayence, consisting of a loose frit or body, to which an enamel adheres, after only a slight fusion.
3. attrib. and Comb., as frit-brick, -mixer, -powder. Also frit-porcelain (see quot.).
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 908. These frit-bricks are afterwards piled up in a large apartment for use.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 917/2. A frit-mixer is a horizontal cylinder with oblique beaters, or a box with semi-cylindrical bottom and a rotating shaft with beaters or stirring arms.
1881. Porcelain Works, Worcester, 15. This fritt powder is used along with borax and other materials.
1889. Century Dict., Frit Porcelain, a name given to the artificial soft-paste English porcelain.
