fress

See also: frëss

English

Etymology

From German fressen (“to eat, devour, gobble”) and/or Yiddish פֿרעסן (fresn), both from Middle High German vrezzen, from Old High German frezzan (“to eat up”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to eat up”), from *fra- (intensive and perfective prefix) + *etaną (“to eat”), equivalent to for- +‎ eat. Cognate with Old English fretan (“to devour”). Doublet of fret.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹɛs/

Verb

fress (third-person singular simple present fresses, present participle fressing, simple past and past participle fressed)

1. (obsolete outside dialects, e.g. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) to eat without restraint; eat heartily

   Synonym: pig out

Further reading

• Lewis Poteet (2004) “along the South Shore, especially in the Shelburne area[:] fress—eat”, in South Shore Phrase Book, iUniverse, →ISBN
• Bill Casselman (1995) Casselman's Canadian Words: A Comic Browse Through Words and Folk Sayings Invented by Canadians: “FRESS To eat like an animal is to fress, a verb common in the area around Lunenburg , Nova Scotia. German immigrants introduced this word, from the German fressen 'to devour, to be gluttonous.' Originally the verb was an intensive form  […]”
• 2012, H.L. Mencken, American Language Supplement 2, Knopf, →ISBN:

  The dialect of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, which was settled by Germans in the Eighteenth Century, has been studied […] apple-snits (Ger. schnitte); lapish, insipid (Ger. láppisch); klotsy, heavy or soggy (Ger. klotzig); to fress, to eat greedily; […] shimmel, a very blond person (Ger. schimmel, a white mould), and Fassnakday, Shroove Tuesday (Ger. Fastnacht).

Anagrams

• serfs

German

Verb

fress

1. (colloquial) first-person singular present of fressen

   Synonym: (standard) fresse

2. (colloquial) singular imperative of fressen

   Synonym: (standard) friss

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /frɛsː/

  Rhymes: -ɛsː

Noun

fress n (genitive singular fress, nominative plural fress) or fress m (genitive singular fress, nominative plural fressar)

1. tomcat

Declension

or