Also 7 frey. [a. ON. frió, freó, frǽ neut., seed = Goth. fraiw seed, offspring. Cf. ON. frió-r, frǽ-r adj., fertile. The F. frai masc., used in sense 3, is believed to be unconnected.]
1. Offspring, progeny, seed, young (of human beings); a man’s children or family; rarely, a child. Now obs. exc. as transf. from sense 3.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, George, 867. Fourty thousand wane to þe fay, outakine wemene & ȝung fry.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 24. Deus. Noe, to the and to thi fry My blyssyng graunt I.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 403. I … maid bot fulis of the fry of his first wif.
1564–78. Bulleyn, Dial. agst. Pest. (1888), 13. Commaunde your folkes to departe out of the chamber, and your yonge frie also, whiche you haue gotten by chaunce medley, for want of Mariage; for the old Prouerb is, Small Pitchers haue wide eares.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. ii. 83.
| Mur. What you Egge? | |
| Yong fry of Treachery? |
1624. Quarles, Sion’s Elegies, I. 5. Thy tender frie Whom childhood taught no language, but their crie T’ expresse their infant griefe.
2. The roe (of a female fish).
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., I. 16. Take fayre Frye of Pyke, and caste it raw on a morter.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 469. Jussel of Fysseh. Take frye of female pike, and pille away the skyn.
[1869. Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Fry, To shoot one’s, to make a last effort without success. Derived from the analogy of a female herring, who, having shot her fry, has done all she can do in the course of nature.]
3. Young fishes just produced from the spawn; spec. the young of salmon in the second year, more fully salmon fry.
1389. Act 13 Rich. II., c. 19. § 1. Stalkers … par les quelles le frie ou brood des salmons laumpreis … pourra estre pris.
1462. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 562. Grete carpes and many oare smale and myche ffrye.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 682. Fyne foullis in Fyrth, and Fischis with fry.
1531–2. Act 23 Hen. VIII., c. 18. Broode and frie of fisshe in the saide riuer … be commonly therby distroied.
1565. J. Sparke, in Hawkins’ Voy. (1878), 61. An innumerable yonge frie of these flying fishes.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., v. § 2 (1643), 141. The force of winds may suddenly sweep away little frey out of ponds upon montanous places.
1677. Johnson, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 128. In Cumberland, the [salmon] fishers have four distinctions of yearly growth (after the first summer, when they call them free, or frie, as we smowts, or smelts) … young fry of other fishes.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1776), III. 297. They feed … sometimes on their own fry.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 75–6. It has been usual for the young salmon fry, or gravellers, to be given to the pigs.
1861. Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 109. § 4. Fish of the genus salmon, whether known by the names … salmon … burntail, fry, samlet, [etc.].
b. Applied to the young of other creatures produced in very large numbers, e.g., bees, frogs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 903. Combs … which contain the young spawn or fry of the Bees.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 135. The Bees, specially the young frie (being laded and wearie with their labour) some at their worke, some in the way home, some at the Hiue-doore are beaten downe; not onely through suddaine stormes, but also through cold rough winds.
1622. Massinger, Virg. Mart., II. ii. A bed of snakes … whose poisonous spawn Ingenders such a fry of speckled villainies.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 826.
| A race obscene | |
| Spawn’d in the muddy beds of Nile … | |
| And the land stank, so num’rous was the fry. |
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 10. The fry of the aquatic races are almost as different from their parents as the caterpillar from the butterfly.
c. fig.
1600. Heywood, 1st Pt. Edw. IV. (1613), C ij a. This hedgebred rascall this filthy fry of ditches, A vengeance take you all.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 442. They come from the sea of Rome … to beget a new spawne and frie of catholikes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 459. The Sunne … together with his frie (whole armies of Gnats).
1806. T. S. Surr, Winter in Lond. (ed. 3), II. 199. It was reserved for the present day to bring forth a fry of young critic imps, the mingled spawn of arrogance and envy hatched by mischief, who were to entail disgrace for ever on the word reviewer, by making it synonymous with libeller and assassin.
4. Hence, as a collective term for young or insignificant beings: now chiefly in phrase lesser, small or young fry. a. The smaller kinds of fish or other animals.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., 811. The huge Leviathans … attend their prey And give no chase, but swallow in the frie.
1674. Pulleyn, in Flatman’s Poems, 2/2. Let your eye Wander, and see one of the lesser frie … Ruffle his painted feathers, and look big.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1677), 56. We bring out not onely Pike and Carp, but lesser Fry.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. xvi. 465. This small Fry I take to be the top of their Fishery: they have no Instruments to catch great Fish.
1718. Prior, Knowledge, 108. Of fishes next … From the small fry that glide on Jordan’s stream … To that Leviathan.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., vii. (1879), 137. A lake … which … swarmed with small fry.
1873. G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xiii. 101. One of the small fry has darted in, and in an instant is hopping about on the grass.
b. Young or insignificant persons (collectively or in a body); a ‘swarm’ or crowd of such persons.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Herbs, Weeds, etc., Wks. (1587), 303. To make their coine a net to catch yong frie.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xii. 7. Them before, the fry of children yong … did play.
1607. Beaum. & Fl., Woman-Hater, III. iii. The whole frie in a Colledge, or an Inn of Court.
1641. Milton, Prel. Episc., 2. To that indigested heap, and frie of Authors.
1689. Swift, Ode to Temple, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 242. As in a theatre the ignorant fry, Because the cords escape their eye, Wonder to see the motions fly.
1738. T. Birch, Milton, M.’s Wks. 1738, I. p. xxvii. He never set up a public School to teach all the young Fry of a Parish; but only was willing to impart his Learning and Knowledge to Relations, and the Sons of Gentlemen, that were his intimate Friends.
1799. Morn. Post, in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1800), III. 122. The fresh fry so constantly emerging from the scholastic trammels of Eton.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., ix. Mrs. Bird … followed by the two eldest boys, the smaller fry having by this time been safely disposed of in bed.
1878–81. C. Fleet, Ancestors in Sussex, Ser. I. 122. Chambermaids, and all the fry who feed on the little weaknesses of humanity.
1885. J. Payn, Talk of Town, II. 99. Compared with [Sheridan], all other managers were small fry.
c. of inanimate things.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Bladud, xvi.
| An heape of hurtes, [a swarme of smartes] a fry of foule decayes, | |
| A flocke of feares, [a droue of deathes,] and thrales a thousand wayes. |
1650. trans. Hotham’s Introd. Teut. Philos., Pref. Few have attained its height in this last frie of books.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., III. (1682), 220. South of Japan, lyeth a great fry of Islands.
a. 1797. H. Walpole (Ogilvie). We have burned two frigates, and a hundred and twenty small fry.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, iv. 38. Having sold his eggs, rags, and other small fry at St. Brieuc, to be shipped to England.
1861. The Saturday Review, XII. 7 Dec., 591/2. Of the smaller fry of Christmas Books, intended for children only, &c., we may specify Little Bird Red and Little Bird Blue, a sort of fairy tale in verse (Sampson Low).
Hence Fryhood, the state of being ‘fry.’
1884. Longm. Mag., III. 531. An abdominal pouch, where they [the eggs] are … nourished during their early fryhood.
