fritter
English
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Late Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry.
For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) enPR: frĭtʹər, IPA(key): /ˈfɹɪtɚ/, [ˈfɹɪɾɚ]
- Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)
Noun
fritter (plural fritters)
- A dish made by deep-frying food coated in batter.
- A fragment; a shred; a small piece.
- 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, OCLC 963614346:
- And cut whole giants into fritters.
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Derived terms
- apple fritter
- corn fritter
- French fritter
- fritter batter
- fritterlike
- fritterware
- oyster fritter
- rice fritter
- spam fritter
Translations
dish made by deep-frying
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Verb
fritter (third-person singular simple present fritters, present participle frittering, simple past and past participle frittered)
- (intransitive, often with about, around, or away) To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.
- I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.
- He can’t figure out how to finish the paper he’s writing, so he’s resorted to frittering with the fonts.
- It is quite possible to fritter one's life away in answer to the endless calls of others.
- (transitive) To sinter.
- (transitive) To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.
- (transitive) To break into small pieces or fragments.
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756:
- Break all nerves, and fritter all their sense.
Derived terms
- fritter away
- frittered
- fritterer
- frittering
Translations
to waste time
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sinter — see sinter
to cut meat into small pieces
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to break into small pieces
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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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See also
- tempura
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fʁi.te/
Audio (file)
Verb
fritter
- (transitive) to fritter / sinter
Conjugation
Conjugation of fritter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | fritter | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | frittant /fʁi.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | fritté /fʁi.te/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | fritte /fʁit/ | frittes /fʁit/ | fritte /fʁit/ | frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/ | frittez /fʁi.te/ | frittent /fʁit/ |
| imperfect | frittais /fʁi.tɛ/ | frittais /fʁi.tɛ/ | frittait /fʁi.tɛ/ | frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/ | frittiez /fʁi.tje/ | frittaient /fʁi.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | frittai /fʁi.te/ | frittas /fʁi.ta/ | fritta /fʁi.ta/ | frittâmes /fʁi.tam/ | frittâtes /fʁi.tat/ | frittèrent /fʁi.tɛʁ/ | |
| future | fritterai /fʁi.tʁe/ | fritteras /fʁi.tʁa/ | frittera /fʁi.tʁa/ | fritterons /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/ | fritterez /fʁi.tʁe/ | fritteront /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/ | fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/ | fritterait /fʁi.tʁɛ/ | fritterions /fʁi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ | fritteriez /fʁi.tə.ʁje/ | fritteraient /fʁi.tʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | fritte /fʁit/ | frittes /fʁit/ | fritte /fʁit/ | frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/ | frittiez /fʁi.tje/ | frittent /fʁit/ |
| imperfect2 | frittasse /fʁi.tas/ | frittasses /fʁi.tas/ | frittât /fʁi.ta/ | frittassions /fʁi.ta.sjɔ̃/ | frittassiez /fʁi.ta.sje/ | frittassent /fʁi.tas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | fritte /fʁit/ | — | frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/ | frittez /fʁi.te/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Further reading
- “fritter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.