frou-frou

See also: froufrou, froofroo, froo-froo, frufru, and frufrú

English

Alternative forms

• froufrou, froo-froo, fru-fru, froofroo, frufru

Etymology

Borrowed from French frou-frou, an onomatopoeia.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹuːfɹuː/
• Hyphenation: frou‧frou

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

frou-frou (plural frou-frous)

1. (onomatopoeia) A rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress.
   • 1870 June 4, Athenaeum, p. 734:

     The modern frou-frou of satin and gros-de-Naples skirts is nothing to the rustling of brocaded silks.

   • 1876, William Besant & al., The Golden Butterfly, Act I, Scene vi, l. 108:

     ...the frou-frou of life was lost to her...

Adjective

frou-frou (comparative more frou-frou, superlative most frou-frou)

1. Liable to create the sound of rustling cloth, similar to 19th-century dresses.
2. Highly ornamented, overly elaborate; excessively girly.

   They ate in a frou-frou restaurant at the top of a skyscraper.

3. (derogatory) Unimportant, silly, useless.

   Bob was off faffing about doing frou-frou nonsense whilst Edwina kept her nose to the grindstone.

Verb

frou-frou (third-person singular simple present frou-frous, present participle frou-frouing, simple past and past participle frou-froued)

1. (rare) To move with the sound of rustling dresses.
   • 1905 May 18, Truth, p. 1289:

     ...frou-frouing femininities...

Usage notes

Almost exclusively seen in the form frou-frouing.

References

• “frou-frou, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “frou-frou, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.

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French

Etymology

Imitative.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁu.fʁu/

Noun

frou-frou m (plural frous-frous)

1. a frou-frou; a rustling sound, as of silk fabric

Derived terms

• froufrouter

Descendants

• English: frou-frou
• Portuguese: frufru

Further reading

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