fraught
English
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /fɹɔːt/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔːt
- (US) IPA(key): /fɹɔt/, /fɹɑt/
- Homophone: frot (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
Etymology 1
From Middle English fraght, freght, from Middle Dutch vracht or Middle Low German vracht (“freight money”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fra- (intensive prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possession”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to possess”). Cognate with Old High German frēht (“earnings”), Old English ǣht (“owndom”), and a doublet of freight. More at for-, own. Adjective from Middle English, passive participle of the verb fraughten, from Middle Dutch vrachten.
Noun
fraught (usually uncountable, plural fraughts)
- (obsolete) The hire of a ship or boat to transport cargo.
- (obsolete) Money paid to hire a ship or boat to transport cargo; freight
- fraught money
- (obsolete) The transportation of goods, especially in a ship or boat.
- (obsolete) A ship's cargo, lading or freight.
- c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], Tho[mas] Heywood, editor, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, OCLC 1121318438, Act I:
- Well, go,
And bid the merchants and my men despatch,
And come ashore, and see the fraught discharg'd.
- 1596, William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd (uncertain), Edward III, Act III, scene iv:
- […] And now behold after my winters toyle,
My paynefull voyage on the boyſtrous ſea,
Of warres deuouring gulphes and ſteely rocks,
I bring my fraught vnto the wiſhed port
My Summers hope, my trauels ſweet reward […]
-
- (Scotland) A load; a burden.
- (Scotland) Two bucketfuls (of water).
Derived terms
- fraught-free
Related terms
- freight
Etymology 2
From Middle English fraghten, fraughten, freghten, from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from the noun (see above).
Verb
fraught (third-person singular simple present fraughts, present participle fraughting, simple past and past participle fraughted)
- (transitive, obsolete except in past participle) To load (a ship, cargo etc.).
- c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], Tho[mas] Heywood, editor, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, OCLC 1121318438, Act I:
- The ships are safe thou say'st, and richly fraught?
-
- (intransitive, obsolete) To form the cargo of a vessel.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.
-
Adjective
fraught (comparative more fraught, superlative most fraught)
- (of a cargo-carrier) Laden.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene viii]:
- a vessel of our country richly fraught
-
- (figuratively, with with) Loaded up or charged with; accompanied by; entailing.
- 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), 6th edition, London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, OCLC 21766567:
- a discourse fraught with all the commending excellences of speech
- a. 1865, Isaac Taylor, Epidemic Whims
- enterprises fraught with world-wide benefits
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 22:
- The simplest action was fraught with danger, and could only be accomplished with the aid of talismans and counter-spells[.]
- 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 236d.
- […] all these matters are fraught with paradox, just as they always have been
-
- (with with) Furnished, equipped.
- Distressed or causing distress, for example through complexity.
- a fraught relationship; a fraught process
- 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):
- But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low. With [Oscar] Pistorius, that task is fraught.
- 2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A royal occasion as heritage projects honoured: Sudbury Hill”, in RAIL, number 972, page 57:
- Installing lift shafts in station buildings which were not originally designed to accommodate them can be a fraught exercise, but a necessary one if the legitimate aspiration of the travelling public for step-free access is to be achieved. At Sudbury Hill, on London Underground's Piccadilly Line extension out to the north-western suburbs, Transport for London has achieved this with aplomb.
Derived terms
- fate-fraught
- full-fraught
Translations
laden
|
charged or accompanied with
|
distressed
|
References
- “fraught”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “fraught”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.