Forms: 5 fretoure, -ure, frutter, fruyter, frytour, -owre, (freature), 5–6 frit-, frut-, -er, -eur, -our(e, -ur(e, 6 frither, frytter, 7 frittar, 5– fritter. [a. Fr. friture = Sp. fritura, It. frittura:—Lat. type *frīctūra, f. frīgĕre to FRY.]
1. Usually pl. A portion of batter, sometimes containing slices of apple, meat, etc., fried in oil, lard, etc. Often preceded by some qualifying word, as apple-, oyster-, rice-fritter; also, in 15–16th c., in some semi-anglicized French terms, as † fritter-bounce, -pouch, -sage, -viant (meat) (obs.).
c. 1420. Liber Cure Cocorum (1862), 55.
| Then tarts and daryels and custan dere, | |
| Rysshene and pome dorres, and frutur in fere. |
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 501.
| O Fruture viant, Frutur sawge, byn good, bettur is Frutur powche; | |
| Appulle fruture is good hoot, but þe cold ye not towche. |
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 600. Frytour of sunne facion, with a floure delyce therin.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 240. Fresshe storgion, quynces in paste, tarte poleyn, fritour bounce, leche reiall.
1634. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 12. Pancake or fritter or flap-iacke.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 19 Aug. Home to supper to a good dish of fritters.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 161. Dip them [apples] in batter, made as for common fritters, fry them crisp.
1835. W. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, x. 72–3. It [the bread] was little more than a paste made of flour and water, and fried, like fritters, in lard; though some adopted a ruder style, twisting it round the ends of sticks, and thus roasting it before the fire.
1859. All Year Round, No. 36. 222. The fritter refuses to imbibe any more oil.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pictures, xix. 301–2. Though I have heard much of the rice fritters and savoury soups of the Lancashire vegetarians, I doubt much of their ability to conceal the taste of the domestic cabbage and the homely onion.
fig. 1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 276. O Clinias … the very fritter of fraud, and seething pot of iniquitie.
†2. ? A species of apple. Obs.–1
1591. Lyly, Endym., III. iii. For fruit these, fritters, medlers, hartichokes and lady longings.
3. pl. Whaling = FENKS.
[Perh. a transferred use of F. friture fat in which something is fried.]
1631. Pellham, Preserv. 8 Englishm. in Green-land, 22. We agreed … to keepe Wednesdayes and Fridayes Fasting dayes; excepting from the Frittars or Graves of the Whale. (marg. note. These be the Scraps of the Fat of the Whale, which are flung away after the Oyle is gotten out of it.)
1813. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 488. Extracting the oil from the fritters.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 176. After a copper or two had been boiled, the finks or fritters were always sufficient to boil the remainder without any other fuel.
4. attrib. and Comb., as fritter-barrow, -pan, -seller; fritter-filled, ppl. a.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 176. A ‘fritter barrow,’ which, being furnished with a grating of wood in place of a bottom, drained the oil from the fritters, from whence it ran into a wooden tank or cooler of about five tons capacity.
1619. Pasquil’s Palin. (1877), 152. When every paunch till it can hold no more, Is *Fritter-fild, as well as heart can wish.
1625. B. Jonson, The Staple of Newes, II. i.
| My face dropt like the skimmer in a *fritter panne, | |
| And my whole body, is yet (to say the truth) | |
| A rosted pound of butter, with grated bread in ’t! |
1636. Davenant, Witts, I. i. Hans van Holme, *fritter seller of Bombell.
