fritter

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Late Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry.

For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) enPR: frĭtʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɪtɚ/, [ˈfɹɪɾɚ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

fritter (plural fritters)

1. A dish made by deep-frying food coated in batter.
2. A fragment; a shred; a small piece.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     And cut whole giants into fritters.

Derived terms

• apple fritter
• corn fritter
• French fritter
• fritter batter
• fritterlike
• fritterware
• oyster fritter
• rice fritter
• spam fritter

 

Translations

dish made by deep-frying

• Burmese: အကြော် (my) (a.krau)
• Catalan: bunyol (ca) m
• Dutch: beignet (nl) m
• Finnish: friteerattu (fi) (+ name of deep-fried ingredient)
• French: beignet (fr) m
• German: Küchle m, (name of deep-fried ingredient +) im Teigmantel, Bratling
• Interlingua: fritura
• Irish: friochtóg f
• Korean: 튀김 (ko) (twigim)
• Malayalam: വറ (ml) (vaṟa)
• Maori: mea kōnatunatu
• Middle English: fryture (late)
• Persian: بنیه (fa) (benye)
• Russian: по́нчик (ru) m (pónčik) (doughnut), ола́дья (ru) f (oládʹja) (thick pancake), (картофель) фри (ru) n (fri) (french fries), пирожо́к (ru) (pirožók) (a small pie, can also be deep-fried)
• Serbo-Croatian: krofna (sh) f, uštipak (sh) m
• Tagalog: maruya
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: mioden f

Verb

fritter (third-person singular simple present fritters, present participle frittering, simple past and past participle frittered)

1. (intransitive, often with about, around, or away) To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.

   I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.

   He can’t figure out how to finish the paper he’s writing, so he’s resorted to frittering with the fonts.

   It is quite possible to fritter one's life away in answer to the endless calls of others.

2. (transitive) To sinter.
3. (transitive) To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.
4. (transitive) To break into small pieces or fragments.
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:

     Break all nerves, and fritter all their sense.

Derived terms

• fritter away
• frittered
• fritterer
• frittering

 

Translations

to waste time

• Bulgarian: прахосвам (bg) (prahosvam)
• Dutch: prutsen (nl)
• Finnish: näperrellä (fi)
• German: prötteln, sich verzetteln (de), frickeln (de)
• Russian: дурью маяться (ru) impf (durʹju majatʹsja)
• Spanish: malgastar energías

sinter — see sinter

to cut meat into small pieces

• Finnish: suikaloida (fi)
• German: kleinschneiden, zerteilen (de), würfeln (de), zerkleinern (de)
• Russian: нарезать (ru) impf (narezatʹ)

to break into small pieces

• Finnish: särkeä (fi)
• German: zerkleinern (de), zerbrechen (de), zerteilen (de)
• Russian: дробить (ru) impf (drobitʹ)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} smiot

See also

• tempura

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁi.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

fritter

1. (transitive) to fritter / sinter

Conjugation

Conjugation of fritter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	fritter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	frittant /fʁi.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		fritté /fʁi.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	fritte /fʁit/	frittes /fʁit/	fritte /fʁit/	frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/	frittez /fʁi.te/	frittent /fʁit/
	imperfect	frittais /fʁi.tɛ/	frittais /fʁi.tɛ/	frittait /fʁi.tɛ/	frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/	frittiez /fʁi.tje/	frittaient /fʁi.tɛ/
	past historic2	frittai /fʁi.te/	frittas /fʁi.ta/	fritta /fʁi.ta/	frittâmes /fʁi.tam/	frittâtes /fʁi.tat/	frittèrent /fʁi.tɛʁ/
	future	fritterai /fʁi.tʁe/	fritteras /fʁi.tʁa/	frittera /fʁi.tʁa/	fritterons /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/	fritterez /fʁi.tʁe/	fritteront /fʁi.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/	fritterais /fʁi.tʁɛ/	fritterait /fʁi.tʁɛ/	fritterions /fʁi.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	fritteriez /fʁi.tə.ʁje/	fritteraient /fʁi.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	fritte /fʁit/	frittes /fʁit/	fritte /fʁit/	frittions /fʁi.tjɔ̃/	frittiez /fʁi.tje/	frittent /fʁit/
	imperfect2	frittasse /fʁi.tas/	frittasses /fʁi.tas/	frittât /fʁi.ta/	frittassions /fʁi.ta.sjɔ̃/	frittassiez /fʁi.ta.sje/	frittassent /fʁi.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	fritte /fʁit/	—	frittons /fʁi.tɔ̃/	frittez /fʁi.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “fritter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.