fry

FRY/fɹaɪ/

Noun pluralfries

18 meanings of fry

1
verbtransitive
To cook food in hot oil or fat.
Fry the onions until they turn golden.
Dad fried two eggs for breakfast.
Note
2
nounCanadaUScountable
A long thin piece of potato cooked in hot oil.
She picked up the last fry from her plate and ate it.
He ordered a burger with fries on the side.
Similarchip
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3
verbintransitive
To cook in hot oil, the way bacon cooks in a pan.
The eggs fried in the pan while he made toast.
Onions fry fast, so watch them closely.
4
verbcolloquialtransitive
To break a machine or electronic device by sending too much power or heat through it.
Like burning food in a pan: too much heat ruins it for good.
The lightning storm fried our television.
If you plug it in wrong, you could fry the whole computer.
Similardestroy, blow
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5
noununcountable
Very young fish that have just come out of their eggs.
Thousands of fry swam near the top of the pond.
He fed the fry in the tank twice a day.
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6
verbcolloquialintransitive
To feel very hot and uncomfortable, often in the sun.
We fried on the beach all afternoon.
You'll fry out there without a hat.
Similarroast, bake, swelter, boil
Oppositefreeze
7
verbslangUStransitive or intransitive
To kill someone in the electric chair, or to die in it.
The gang boss fried at the state prison in 1936.
The judge warned that he could fry for the murder.
Similarelectrocute
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8
nounBritishIrelandcountable
A breakfast meal of fried foods like eggs, bacon, and sausages.
They stopped at a café for a fry before the long drive.
On Sundays, Gran cooks a big fry for the whole family.
Similarfry-up
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9
nounUScountable
A testicle from a lamb or a young cow, eaten as food.
The cowboys saved the fries from the young calves and cooked them over the fire.
She had never eaten a fry before and asked the cook what part of the lamb it was.
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10
nounAustraliaNew Zealanduncountable
The liver of a lamb, used as food.
The butcher saved a fresh fry from the spring lamb for our supper.
The recipe calls for a whole fry from a young lamb, soaked in milk before cooking.
Similarliver
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11
noundialectalUKuncountable
A person's children, or all the young of an animal.
She came down the lane with all her fry trailing behind her.
The old hen fussed over her fry whenever the dog came near the yard.
Similarbrood, offspring, young, children
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12
noundialectalUKuncountable
The eggs of frogs, found as soft jelly in ponds and streams.
In early spring the pond fills with fry, and by May it is full of tadpoles.
Children scooped the jelly-like fry into jars to watch the tadpoles hatch.
Similarspawn, frogspawn
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13
nounarchaicuncountable
A large moving crowd of small creatures or things.
The whole fry of children ran behind the wagon, shouting and laughing.
By evening, the fry of small flies above the river was too thick to walk through.
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14
nounarchaic
A time or state when someone is very excited or upset.
The whole village was in a fry over the news of the wedding.
Don't put yourself in such a fry; the coach will wait for us.
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15
verbobsolete
To boil, or to cook slowly in bubbling liquid.
Let the broth fry gently on the fire until the meat is soft.
With crackling flames a caldron fries.
1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”Here, fries means bubbles or boils with hot liquid.
Note
16
nouncountable
A tool with many small holes, used to separate small bits from larger pieces.
The miller shook the ground meal through a fry to take out the coarse bran.
He sifted the gravel in a fry, shaking it until only the stones remained on top.
Similarsieve, riddle, sifter, screen
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17
nouncountable
A drain under the ground made from bundles of branches.
Like a pipe buried under a field, but made of bundles of branches instead of clay or plastic.
The farmer dug a fry across the wet field to carry the water away.
Water from the hillside ran down into the fry and out to the ditch.
Similardrain
18
verbdialectaltransitive
To drain land by putting bundles of branches under the ground.
The men came to fry the lower field before the winter rains.
Grandfather fried that whole meadow with hazel branches years ago.
Similardrain
Note

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–4, 6–10, 14–15

It came from Old French frire and from Latin frīgō, meaning 'to roast or fry'.

Meanings 5, 11–13

It came from Middle English frie, meaning young fish or offspring, probably from Old Norse frjó ('seed, semen').

Meanings 16–18

This dialectal word has an unclear origin, perhaps linked to frith ('a wood or brushwood').