frou-frou
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French frou-frou, an onomatopoeia.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
frou-frou (plural frou-frous)
- (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...
- 1870 June 4, Athenaeum, p. 734:
Adjective[edit]
frou-frou (comparative more frou-frou, superlative most frou-frou)
- Liable to create the sound of rustling cloth, similar to 19th-century dresses.
- Highly ornamented, overly elaborate; excessively girly.
- They ate in a frou-frou restaurant at the top of a skyscraper.
- (derogatory) Unimportant, silly, useless.
Verb[edit]
frou-frou (third-person singular simple present frou-frous, present participle frou-frouing, simple past and past participle frou-froued)
- (rare) To move with the sound of rustling dresses.
- 1905 May 18, Truth, p. 1289:
- ...frou-frouing femininities...
- 1905 May 18, Truth, p. 1289:
Usage notes[edit]
Almost exclusively seen in the form frou-frouing.
References[edit]
- “frou-frou, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
- “frou-frou, v.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Imitative.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
frou-frou m (plural frous-frous)
- a frou-frou; a rustling sound, as of silk fabric
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “frou-frou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English onomatopoeias
- English adjectives
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English terms with rare senses
- en:Sexism
- French onomatopoeias
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French multiword terms
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Sound