fries

1. 1
   nounCanadaPhilippinesUSabbreviationellipsis

   Short for french fries.

   We ordered a large box of fries to share after the movie.

   He salted the fries straight out of the fryer.

   Note

   The clipped kitchen name, chiefly North American and Philippine, keeps only the cooking method and drops the modifier. That dropped word describes the cut: frenched potatoes are sliced into strips before deep-frying, and the full form appears both as french fries and French fries. Like the full compound, the short form is normally plural, so order fries or a box of fries rather than a fry.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of fry.

   The cook fries each batch of dough until it turns golden brown.

   My grandmother fries plantains as a side dish for dinner.

   Note

   It is spelled exactly like the plural noun, so only context separates them: she fries eggs, but the fries are cold. The verb works with or without an object, as in the cook fries the bacon and the bacon fries in the pan. Informally, a power surge fries a circuit board, and there the meaning is destroy rather than cook.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of fry in its fried-food senses, such as fish fries. Young fish are fry in the plural too.

   Friday night fish fries are a tradition across Wisconsin.

   The firehouse raised money with pancake breakfasts and catfish fries.

   Note

   A plural whose meaning changes with the map. In the US and Canada, fried potato pieces almost always come as fries, and in the US so do lamb or calf testicles. In Britain and Ireland a fry is a plate of sausages, bacon and eggs, and in Australia and New Zealand it is lamb's liver. Young fish are the exception: that sense is uncountable, so a school of them is usually fry, not fries.

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