frizz

• IPA^(key): /fɹɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪz

From Middle English frysen, from Old French friser, frizer (“to frizzle, crisp, curl, ruffle, braid, touch lightly, graze, scratch”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Old Frankish *fris (“curl”), from Proto-Germanic *frisaz (“frizzy, curly”). Cognate with Old Frisian frisle, frēsle ("the hair of the head, lock of hair, curl, ringlet"; > North Frisian friessle, fressle (“hair, horse's tail”), West Frisian frisseljen (“braid of hair, braid”)), Old English frīs (“crisped, curled”).

frizz (third-person singular simple present frizzes, present participle frizzing, simple past and past participle frizzed)

1. (intransitive) Of hair, to form into a mass of tight curls.
2. (transitive) To curl; to make frizzy.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Pepys

     with her hair frizzed short up to her ears

   • 1937, John Betjeman, Slough

     In labour-saving homes, with care, / Their wives frizz out peroxide hair.

   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; […]

3. To form into little burs, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth.
4. To make (leather) soft and of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument.
5. To fry, cook, or sear with a sizzling noise; to sizzle.

• friseur
• frizzle

From Middle English fryse, from the verb. See above.

frizz (countable and uncountable, plural frizzes)

1. A mass of tightly curled or unruly hair.

• frizz in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• frizz at OneLook Dictionary Search

English frizz

frizz m (uncountable)

1. frizz (of hair)