fret me [with allusion to Fret

(1)], yet you cannot play upon me."- Shakesp.: Hamlet, iii. 2. frět (1), freate, s. [FRET (1), v.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Literally: (1) The act or proce of fretting or rubbing away. (2) A sore or weak place which eats away or corrodes the surrounding parts. "Freates be in a shaft as well as in a bowe, and they be much like a canker, creepinge and increasinge in those places in a bowe, which be weaker then other." -Ascham: Toxophilus. (3) An agitation of the surface of a fluid, as in fermentation or boiling; fermentation. "And if it ferment not at all, it will want that little fret which makes it grateful to most palates."- Evelyn : Sylva, pt. ii.; Aphorisms concerning Cider. 2. Fig .: Agitation or irritation of the mind; a state of chafing or vexation. "Mark all his wanderings, and enjoy his frets." Herbert: Church Porch. II. Technically: 1. Medical: fretting frět (5), 8. [Etym. doubtful; perhaps a particu lar use of O. Fr. frete a ferrule.] [FRET, (3), 8.] Music: A small piece of wood or ivory placed upon the finger-board of certain stringed instruments, to regulate the pitch of the notes produced. By pre ing the string down to the finger-board behind a fret, only so much of the string can beset in vibration as lies between the fret and the bridge. Frets are, therefore, nothing more or le than little bridges. The Egyptian lutes had frets made of camel-gut, tied or glued around the finger-board. All the viols contained in a chest had frets, and some of the early forms of the violin were even furnished with them. But not only do they prevent the rapid fingering of difficult pa ages, but they also entirely deprive the violin of one of its most charming qualities, that of slurring or portamento , an attempt to produce which will, on a fretted in of Guitar. strument, result in a well-defined Frets chromatic scale. Another reason for the abandonment of fretted violins was that, in extreme keys, the intervals could not be tempered. "I did but tell her she mistooke her frets. Frets call you these? (quoth she) I'le fume with them: And with that word she stroke me on the head." Shakesp.: Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1. *frět, *frětte, pa. par. or a. [FRET, 2, v.] *frěte, v. t. [FRET (1), v.]