fret5 (fret)

[Origin uncertain; perhaps, as Skeat suggests, a particular use of OF. frete, a ferrule (a bar): see fret3, n.] n. ] In musical instruments of the lute and viol cla , a small ridge of wood, ivory, metal, or other material, set acro the finger-board, and serving as a fixed point for stopping or shortening the strings in playing, the fingers being applied just above it so as to pre the string against it. Frets were originally used on all varieties of the lute and the viol; but they are now employed only in the guitar and zither and sometimes in the banjo. The Towne Musitians Finger their frets within. Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindne . These means, as frets upon an instrument, Shall tune our heart-strings to true languishment. Shak ., Lucrece, 1. 1140. fret (fret), v. t.; pret. and pp. fretted, ppr. fret ting. [ N. Ward , Simple Cobler, p. 40. 21. Punningly, in Shakspere, to worry as if by acting upon the frets of. Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. Shak., Hamlet, iii. 2. fret6+ (fret), n. [L. fretum , a strait, a sound; not connected with frith2 = firth2 .] A frith. [Rare.] It [Euripus] generally sign if i eth any strait, fret , or channel of the sea, running between two shores. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., vii. 13. An island parted from the fir me land with a little fret Knolles, Hist. Turks. of the sea. frett, p. a. [A form of freight, found in 16thcentury editions of Chaucer, but not in ME. manuscripts.] Same as freight. teeth.-2. A reciprocating scroll-saw mounted on a table and operated by a treadle. See scroll saw. frettage (fret'āj), n. [ The gun... ordinarily receives an exterior frettage . Report of Chief of Ordnance, 1882, p. 244. frettation (fre-ta's hon), n. [Irreg. fret1 + -ation.] Annoyance; discomposure. Davies . [Rare.] I never knew how much in earnest and in sincerity she was my friend till she heard of my infinite frettation upon occasion of being pamphleted. Mme . D'Arblay , Diary, I. 144. [F., a hoop: see fret3 .] In