fringe

Pluralfringes

Formsfringes, fringing, fringed

1. 1
   decorative bordernouncountable

   A decorative border or edging, as on fabric, a garment, or a picture.

   She sewed a beaded fringe along the hem of her dance costume.

   He bought a suede jacket with long fringes hanging from the sleeves.

   Similaredging, border, trim

   Note

   The sense the others grow from: Middle English frenge came through Old French from a Vulgar Latin form that swapped the letters of Latin fimbriae, "fibers, threads". As a mass noun it is bought like cloth (walls of blue silk edged with silver fringe, in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Francesca Carrara); as a count noun it is one border, a fringe at each end of a scarf.

2. 2
   extreme membersnouncountablebefore a noun

   The members of a political party or other social group who hold extreme or unorthodox views.

   The party's leaders worked hard to distance themselves from its radical fringe.

   The senator dismissed the protesters as a noisy fringe that didn't speak for most party members.

   Oppositemainstream

3. 3
   hair over foreheadnounUKcountable

   Hair hanging over the forehead, especially in a style where it is cut straight across; bangs.

   She walked out of the salon with a blunt fringe that skimmed her eyebrows.

   Heavy fringes were everywhere that season, from the catwalks to the high street.

   Similarbangs

   Note

   British English says fringe where American English says bangs, and the grammar differs as well as the word: the British one is singular (her fringe, a blunt fringe), the American one plural. A London hairdresser trims your fringe; a New York one trims your bangs. In Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, Mrs. Athelny takes out her curling pins and appears with an elaborate fringe.

4. 4
   not mainstreamadjective

   Lying outside the mainstream of opinion, taste, or practice.

   The festival has always welcomed acts that are far too fringe for commercial venues.

   What began as a fringe theory is now taught in introductory courses.

   Similarmarginal, alternative, peripheral

   Oppositemainstream, conventional

   Note

   Grading is what shows it has become a true adjective: something can be too fringe or more fringe, even fringer and fringest, and it can follow its noun, as when Holland Cotter calls Charlotte Moorman a champion of all things fringe. That sets it apart from the fringe group of the radical minority, where a noun simply stands before another noun.

5. 5
   outer partnounfigurativelycountable

   A marginal or peripheral part of something, lying away from its center or core.

   For years she worked on the fringes of the film industry, writing scripts nobody produced.

   The proposal touched only the fringe of the problem and left its core untouched.

   Similaredge, periphery

   Oppositecenter, core

   Note

   The figurative use is most often plural, in the phrase on the fringes of: of an industry, of a debate, of a team. Sports writing uses it for a player who belongs to the squad but is rarely picked, as when a BBC Sport report finds Dos Santos often on the fringes at Spurs. The figure is old; Jeremy Taylor's sermons already speak of the fringes of repentance.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The outer edge or periphery of an area, especially of a town or city.

   New housing developments are spreading along the northern fringe of the city.

   The railroad skirts the fringes of the national park without ever entering it.

   Similaroutskirts

   Oppositecenter

7. 7
   line the edgeverbtransitive

   To form a border along or around the edge of something.

   Palm trees fringe the bay, casting thin shadows over the sand.

   A line of gray clouds fringed the horizon all afternoon.

   Similarline, border, edge, ring

8. 8
   decorate edgesverbtransitive

   To decorate the edge of something with a fringe.

   Costume makers fringe the sleeves with strips of soft leather.

   Her shawl was fringed with knotted silk that swayed as she walked.

   Similartrim, edge, border

   Note

   The verb is most often met as a participle, fringed with, and poets stretch it well beyond needlework: Tennyson's cloud in In Memoriam (1850) is a looming bastion fringed with fire, and Louisa May Alcott's ice palace has a roof fringed with icicles. Here something adds the border; in the verb for forming a border the subject is the border itself, as when trees fringe a bay.

9. 9
   narrow edgingnouncountable

   A border or edging of any kind, such as a strip of trees along a field.

   A narrow fringe of pines separated the highway from the lake.

   The old man's bald head was circled by a fringe of white hair.

   Similarborder, edge, rim, band

10. 10
    outsider groupnouncountable

    A group of people who sit at the edges of a larger community.

    The bookshop became a meeting place for the town's literary fringe.

    The movement drew its first recruits from the restless fringe of the city's youth.

    Oppositemainstream

    Note

    Here the edge is social rather than political, and an adjective usually says what kind of fringe it is: literary, restless, or, in J. D. Salinger's "Franny", the intellectual fringe of students at the college. Such a group is set a little apart from the rest, not extreme, which is the line between this use and the radical minority.

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