fringe
English
Etymology
From Middle English frenge, from Old French frenge, from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, metathesis of Latin fimbriae (“fibers, threads, fringe”, plural). (Cognates include German Franse and Danish frynse.) Doublet of fimbria.
Pronunciation
- (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fɹɪnd͡ʒ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪndʒ
Noun
fringe (plural fringes)
- A decorative border.
- the fringe of a picture
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 118:
- The walls were hung with blue silk, edged with silver fringe; and the closely-drawn blue velvet curtains swept the ground.
- A marginal or peripheral part.
- 1651–1653, Jer[emy] Taylor, ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1655, OCLC 1051524189:
- the confines of grace and the fringes of repentance
- 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:
- Dos Santos, who has often been on the fringes at Spurs since moving from Barcelona, whipped in a fantastic cross that Pavlyuchenko emphatically headed home for his first goal of the season.
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- Those members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views.
- The periphery of a town or city (or other area).
- He lives on the fringe of London.
- 1961 October, ""Voyageur"", “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 598:
- Moreover, although a number of lines penetrate to the fringes of the English Lake District, this is the only one which actually passes through it.
- (UK) Synonym of bangs: hair hanging over the forehead, especially a hairstyle where it is cut straight across.
- Her fringe is so long it covers her eyes.
- 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “Chapter LXXXVIII”, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, OCLC 890513588:
- In a few minutes Mrs. Athelny appeared. She had taken her hair out of the curling pins and now wore an elaborate fringe.
- 1981, Hilda Doolittle, HERmione, page 155:
- Fayne in the photograph had a fringe, hair frizzed over hidden ears, sleeves over-ornate, the whole thing out of keeping.
- 2007, Lauraine Snelling, Sophie's Dilemma, page 16:
- Ingeborg knew she wasn′t ready for fringes or short hair like some of the women she′d seen, and she hoped her daughter wasn′t either.
- “No.” Astrid′s tone dismissed Sophie and the fringe as she galloped off to a new topic.
- 2009, Geraldine Biddle-Perry, Sarah Cheang, Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion, page 231,
- Set against the seductive visual and textual imagery of these soft-focus fantasy worlds, the stock list details offer the reader a very real solution to achieving the look themselves, ‘Hair, including coloured fringes (obtainable from Joseph, £3.50) by Paul Nix’ (Baker 1972a: 68).
- (physics) A light or dark band formed by the diffraction of light.
- interference fringe
- Non-mainstream theatre.
- The Fringe; Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe
- (botany) The peristome or fringe-like appendage of the capsules of most mosses.
- (golf) The area around the green
- (Australia) Used attributively with reference to Aboriginal people living on the edge of towns etc.
- 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 20:
- All the fringe people thought it was such a good house, ingenious in fact, and erected similar makeshift housing for themselves.
- 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 20:
- (television, radio) A daypart that precedes or follows prime time.
Synonyms
- (members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views): fringe group
- (periphery of a town or city): outskirts
Derived terms
- befringe
- donkey fringe
- fringe benefit
- fringe church
- fringe dweller
- fringefan
- fringeless
- fringe meeting
- fringer
- fringe-toed lizard
- fringe tree
- fringe-worthy
- fringe-y
- fringy
- hoary fringe moss
- lunatic fringe
- Newgate fringe
- rurban fringe
- woolly fringe moss
Translations
decorative border
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peripheral part
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members of a social group holding unorthodox views
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the periphery of a city
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hanging hair over the forehead
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light or dark band formed by the diffraction of light
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non-mainstream theatre
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective
fringe (not comparable)
- Outside the mainstream.
- 2015 September 7, Holland Cotter, “Exhibitions Where Moral Force Trumps Market Forces”, in New York Times:
- So was the cellist Charlotte Moorman, muse to Nam June Paik and proactivist champion of all things fringe.
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Synonyms
- alternative
- nonmainstream
Translations
outside the mainstream
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Verb
fringe (third-person singular simple present fringes, present participle fringing, simple past and past participle fringed)
- (transitive) To decorate with fringe.
- (transitive) To serve as a fringe.
- 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob's Room:
- Purple bonnets fringed soft, pink, querulous faces on pillows in bath chairs.
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Translations
to decorate with fringe
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to serve as a fringe
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Anagrams
- Finger, finger