Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

FRANKFEE — FRESHEN

FRANKFEE, n. Freehold; a holding of lands in fee simple.

FRANKINCENSE, n. [frank and incense.] A dry resinous substance in pieces or drops, of a pale yellowish white color, of a bitterish acrid taste, and very inflammable; used as a perfume.

FRANKING, ppr. Exempting from postage.

FRANKLAW, n. Free or common law, or the benefit a person has by it.

FRANKLIN, n. A freeholder. Obs.

FRANKLINITE, n. A mineral compound of iron, zinc and manganese, found in New Jersey, and named from Dr. Franklin.

FRANKLY, adv.

1. Openly; freely; ingenuously; without reserve, constraint or disguise; as, to confess one’s faults frankly.

2. Liberally; freely; readily. Luke 7:42.

FRANKMARRIAGE, n. A tenure in tail special; or an estate of inheritance given to a person, together with a wife, and descendible to the heirs of their two bodies begotten.

FRANKNESS, n.

1. Plainness of speech; candor; freedom in communication; openness; ingenuousness. He told me his opinions with frankness.

2. Fairness; freedom from art or craft; as frankness of dealing.

3. Liberality; bounteousness. [Little used.]

FRANKPLEDGE, n. A pledge or surety for the good behavior of freemen. Anciently in England, a number of neighbors who were bound for each other’s good behavior.

FRANKTENEMENT, n. An estate of freehold; the possession of the soil by a freeman.

FRANTIC, a. [L. phreneticus; Gr. from delirium or raving, from mind, the radical sense of which is to rush, to drive forward.]

1. Mad; raving; furious; outrageous; wild and disorderly; distracted; as a frantic person; frantic with fear or grief.

2. Characterized by violence, fury and disorder; noisy; mad; wild; irregular; as the frantic rites of Bacchus.

FRANTICLY, adv. Madly; distractedly; outrageously.

FRANTICNESS, n. Madness; fury of passion; distraction.

FRAP, v.t. In seamen’s language, to cross and draw together the several parts of a tackle to increase the tension.

FRATERNAL, a. [L. fraternus, from frater, brother.]

Brotherly; pertaining to brethren; becoming brothers; as fraternal love or affection; a fraternal embrace.

FRATERNALLY, adv. In a brotherly manner.

FRATERNITY, n. [L. fraternitas.]

1. The state or quality of a brother; brotherhood.

2. A body of men associated for their common interest or pleasure; a company; a brotherhood; a society; as the fraternity of free masons.

3. Men of the same class, profession, occupation or character.

With what terms of respect knaves and sots will speak of their own fraternity.

FRATERNIZATION, n. The act of associating and holding fellowship as brethren.

FRATERNIZE, v.i. To associate or hold fellowship as brothers, or as men of like occupation or character.

FRATRICIDE, n. [L. fratricidium; frater, brother, and caedo, to kill.]

1. The crime of murdering a brother.

2. One who murders or kills a brother.

FRAUD, n. [L. fraus.]

Deceit; deception; trick; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; a stratagem intended to obtain some undue advantage; an attempt to gain or the obtaining of an advantage over another by imposition or immoral means, particularly deception in contracts, or bargain and sale, either by stating falsehoods, or suppressing truth.

If success a lover’s toil attends, who asks if force or fraud obtained his ends.

FRAUDFUL, a.

1. Deceitful in making bargains; trickish; treacherous; applied to persons.

2. Containing fraud or deceit; applied to things.

FRAUDFULLY, adv. Deceitfully; with intention to deceive and gain an undue advantage; trickishly; treacherously; by stratagem.

FRAUDULENCE, FRAUDULENCY, n. Deceitfulness; trickishness in making bargains, or in social concerns.

FRAUDULENT, a.

1. Deceitful in making contracts; trickish; applied to persons.

2. Containing fraud; founded on fraud; proceeding from fraud; as a fraudulent bargain.

3. Deceitful; treacherous; obtained or performed by artifice.

FRAUDULENTLY, adv. By fraud; by deceit; by artifice or imposition.

FRAUGHT, a. fraut.

1. Laden; loaded; charged; as a vessel richly fraught with goods from India. This sense is used in poetry; but in common business, freighted only is used.

2. Filled; stored; full; as a scheme fraught with mischief; the scriptures are fraught with excellent precepts.

FRAUGHT, n. A freight; a cargo. [Not now used.]

FRAUGHT, v.t. To load; to fill; to crowd. Obs.

FRAUGHTAGE, n. Loading; cargo. [Not used.]

FRAY, n. [L. fractura, from frango, frico.]

1. A boil, quarrel or violent riot, that puts men in fear. This is the vulgar word for affray, and the sense seems to refer the word to Fr. effrayer.

2. A combat; a battle; also, a single combat or duel.

3. A contest; contention.

4. A rub; a fret or chafe in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.

FRAY, v.t. To fright; to terrify. Obs.

FRAY, v.t. [L. frico, to rub.]

1. To rub; to fret, as cloth by wearing.

2. To rub; as, a deer frays his head.

FRAYED, pp. Frightened; rubbed; worn.

FRAYING, ppr. Frightening; terrifying; rubbing.

FRAYING, n. Peel of a deer’s horn.

FREAK, n.

1. Literally, a sudden starting or change of place. Hence,

2. A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a whim or fancy; a capricious prank.

She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation.

FREAK, v.t. [Heb. to divide.]

To variegate; to checker.

Freaked with many a mingled hue.

FREAKISH, a. Apt to change the mind suddenly; whimsical; capricious.

It may be a question, whether the wife or the woman was the more freakish of the two.

FREAKISHLY, adv. Capriciously; with sudden change of mind, without cause.

FREAKISHNESS, n. Capriciousness; whimsicalness.

FRECKLE, n.

1. A spot of a yellowish color in the skin, particularly on the face, neck and hands. Freckles may be natural or produced by the action of the sun on the skin, or from the jaundice.

2. Any small spot or discoloration.

FRECKLED, a.

1. Spotted; having small yellowish spots on the skin or surface; as a freckled face or neck.

2. Spotted; as a freckled cowslip.

FRECKLEDNESS, n. The state or being freckled.

FRECKLEFACED, a. Having a face full of freckles.

FRECKLY, a. Full of freckles; sprinkled with spots.

FRED, Victorious peace. Our ancestors called a sanctuary, fredstole, a seat of peace.

FREE, n. [Heb. See Frank.]

1. Being at liberty; not being under necessity or restraint, physical or moral; a word of general application to the body, the will or mind, and to corporations.

2. In government, not enslaved; not in a state of vassalage or dependence; subject only to fixed laws, made by consent, and to a regular administration of such laws; not subject to the arbitrary will of a sovereign or lord; as a free state, nation or people.

3. Instituted by a free people, or by consent or choice of those who are to be subjects, and securing private rights and privileges by fixed laws and principles; not arbitrary or despotic; as a free constitution or government.

There can be no free government without a democratical branch in the constitution.

4. Not imprisoned, confined or under arrest; as, the prisoner is set free.

5. Unconstrained; unrestrained; not under compulsion or control. A man is free to pursue his own choice; he enjoys free will.

6. Permitted; allowed; open; not appropriated; as, places of honor and confidence are free to all; we seldom hear of a commerce perfectly free.

7. Not obstructed; as, the water has a free passage or channel; the house is open to a free current of air.

8. Licentious; unrestrained. The reviewer is very free in his censures.

9. Open; candid; frank; ingenuous; unreserved; as, we had a free conversation together.

Will you be free and candid to your friend?

10. Liberal in expenses; not parsimonious; as a free purse; a man is free to give to all useful institutions.

11. Gratuitous; not gained by importunity or purchase. He made him a free offer of his services. It is a free gift. The salvation of men is of free grace.

12. Clear of crime or offense; guiltless; innocent.

My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.

13. Not having feeling or suffering; clear; exempt; with from; as free from pain or disease; free from remorse.

14. Not encumbered with; as free from a burden.

15. Open to all, without restriction or without expense; as a free school.

16. Invested with franchises; enjoying certain immunities; with of; as a man free of the city of London.

17. Possessing without vassalage or slavish conditions; as free of his farm.

18. Liberated from the government or control of parents, or of a guardian or master. A son or an apprentice, when of age, is free.

19. Ready; eager; not dull; acting without spurring or shipping; as a free horse.

20. Genteel; charming. [Not in use.]

FREE, v.t.

1. To remove from a thing any encumbrance or obstruction; to disengage from; to rid; to strip; to clear; as, to free the body from clothes; to free the feet from fetters; to free a channel from sand.

2. To set at liberty; to rescue or release from slavery, captivity or confinement; to loose. The prisoner is freed from arrest.

3. To disentangle; to disengage.

4. To exempt.

He that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6:7.

5. To manumit; to release from bondage; as, to free a slave.

6. To clear from water, as a ship by pumping.

7. To release from obligation or duty.

To free from or free of, is to rid of, by removing, in any manner.

FREEBENCH, n. A widow’s dower in a copyhold.

FREEBOOTER, n. [See Booty.]

One who wanders about for plunder; a robber; a pillager; a plunderer.

FREEBOOTING, n. Robbery; plunder; a pillaging.

FREEBORN, a. Born free; not in vassalage; inheriting liberty.

FREECHAPEL, n. In England, a chapel founded by the king and not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary. The kind may also grant license to a subject to found such a chapel.

Free city, in Germany, an imperial city, not subject to a prince, but governed by its own magistrates.

FREECOST, n. Without expense; freedom from charges.

FREED, pp. Set at liberty; loosed; delivered from restraint; cleared of hinderance or obstruction.

FREEDENIZEN, n. A citizen.

FREEDMAN, n. A man who has been a slave and is manumitted.

FREEDOM, n.

1. A state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude or confinement. Freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. [See Liberty.]

2. Particular privileges; franchise; immunity; as the freedom of a city.

3. Power of enjoying franchises.

4. Exemption from fate, necessity, or any constraint in consequence of predetermination or otherwise; as the freedom of the will.

5. Any exemption from constraint or control.

6. Ease or facility of doing any thing. He speaks or acts with freedom.

7. Frankness; boldness. He addressed his audience with freedom.

8. License; improper familiarity; violation of the rules of decorum; with a plural. Beware of what are called innocent freedoms.

FREEFISHERY, n. A royal franchise or exclusive privilege of fishing in a public river.

FREEFOOTED, a. Not restrained in marching. [Not used.]

FREEHEARTED, a. [See Heart.]

1. Open; frank; unreserved.

2. Liberal; charitable; generous.

FREEHEARTEDNESS, n. Frankness; openness of heart; liberality.

FREEHOLD, a. That land or tenement which is held in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life. It is of two kinds; in deed, and in law. The first is the real possession of such land or tenement; the last is the right a man has to such land or tenement, before his entry or seizure.

Freehold is also extended to such offices as a man holds in fee or for life. It is also taken in opposition to villenage.

In the United States, a freehold is an estate which a man holds in his own right, subject to no superior nor to conditions.

FREEHOLDER, n. One who owns an estate in fee-simple, fee-tail or for life; the possessor of a freehold. Every juryman must be a freeholder.

FREEING, ppr. Delivering from restraint; releasing from confinement; removing incumbrances or hinderances from any thing; clearing.

FREELY, adv.

1. At liberty; without vassalage, slavery or dependence.

2. Without restraint, constraint or compulsion; voluntarily. To render a moral agent accountable, he must act freely.

3. Plentifully; in abundance; as, to eat or drink freely.

4. Without scruple or reserve; as, to censure freely.

5. Without impediment or hinderance.

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Genesis 2:16.

6. Without necessity, or compulsion from divine predetermination.

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

7. Without obstruction; largely; copiously. The patient bled freely.

8. Spontaneously; without constraint or persuasion.

9. Liberally; generously; as, to give freely to the poor.

10. Gratuitously; of free will or grace, with out purchase or consideration.

Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.

FREEMAN, n. [free and man.]

1. One who enjoys liberty, or who is not subject to the will of another; one not a slave or vassal.

2. One who enjoys or is entitled to a franchise or peculiar privilege; as the freemen of a city or state.

FREEMASON, n. One of the fraternity of masons.

FREEMINDED, a. Not perplexed; free from care.

FREENESS, n.

1. The state or quality of being free, unconstrained, unconfined, unincumbered, or unobstructed.

2. Openness; unreservedness; frankness; ingenuousness; candor; as the freeness of a confession.

3. Liberality; generosity; as freeness in giving.

4. Gratuitousness; as the freeness of divine grace.

FREESCHOOL, n.

1. A school supported by funds, etc., in which pupils are taught without paying for tuition.

2. A school open to admit pupils without restriction.

FREESPOKEN, a. Accustomed to speak without reserve.

FREESTONE, n. Any species of stone composed of sand or grit, so called because it is easily cut or wrought.

FREETHINKER, n. A softer name for a deist; an unbeliever; one who discards revelation.

FREETHINKING, n. Unbelief.

FREETONGUED, a. Speaking without reserve.

FREEWARREN, n. A royal franchise or exclusive right of killing beasts and fowls of warren within certain limits.

FREEWILL, n.

1. The power of directing our own actions without restraint by necessity or fate.

2. Voluntariness; spontaneousness.

FREEWOMAN, n. A woman not a slave.

FREEZE, v.i. pret. froze; pp. frozen, or froze. [Gr. had for its radical letters.]

1. To be congealed by cold; to be changed from a liquid to a solid state by the abstraction of heat; to be hardened into ice or a like solid body. Water freezes at the temperature of 32 degrees above zero by Fahrenheit’s thermometer. Mercury freezes at 40 degrees below zero.

2. To be of that degree of cold at which water congeals.

3. To chill; to stagnate, or to retire from the extreme vessels; as, the blood freezes in the veins.

4. To be chilled; to shiver with cold.

5. To die by means of cold. We say a man freezes to death.

FREEZE, v.t.

1. To congeal; to harden into ice; to change from a fluid to a solid form by cold or abstraction of heat. This weather will freeze the rivers and lakes.

2. To kill by cold; but we often add the words to death. this air will freeze you, or freeze you to death.

3. To chill; to give the sensation of cold and shivering. This horrid tale freezes my blood.

FREEZE, in architecture. [See Frieze.]

FREIGHT, n. frate. [L. fero; formed like bright.]

1. The cargo, or any part of the cargo of a ship; lading; that which is carried by water. The freight of a ship consists of cotton; the ship has not a full freight; the owners have advertised for freight; freight will be paid for by the ton.

2. Transportation of goods. We paid four dollars a ton for the freight from London to Barcelona.

3. The hire of a ship, or money charged or paid for the transportation of goods. After paying freight and charges, the profit is trifling.

FREIGHT, v.t.

1. To load with goods, as a ship or vessel of any kind, for transporting them from one place to another. We freighted the ship for Amsterdam; the ship was freighted with flour for Havana.

2. To load as the burden.

FREIGHTED, pp. Loaded, as a ship or vessel.

FREIGHTER, n. One who loads a ship, or one who charters and loads a ship.

FREIGHTING, ppr. Loading, as a ship or vessel.

FREISLEBEN, n. A mineral of a blue or bluish gray color, brittle and soft to the touch.

FREN, n. A stranger. [Not used.]

FRENCH, a. Pertaining to France or its inhabitants.

French Chalk, scaly talc, a variety of indurated talc, in masses composed of small scales; its color is pearly white or grayish.

FRENCH, n. The language spoken by the people of France.

FRENCH-HORN, n. A wind instrument of music made of metal.

FRENCHIFY, v.t. To make French; to infect with the manner of the French.

FRENCHLIKE, a. Resembling the French.

FRENETIC, a. [See Frantic and Phrenetic.]

FRENZIED, part. a. Affected with madness.

FRENZY, n. [L. phrenitis, Gr. from mind, which is from moving, rushing. See Frantic.]

Madness; distraction; rage; or any violent agitation of the mind approaching to distraction.

All else is towering frenzy and distraction.

FREQUENCE, n. [L. frequentia.] A crowd; a throng; a concourse; an assembly. [Little used.]

FREQUENCY, n.

1. A return or occurrence of a thing often repeated at short intervals. The frequency of crimes abates our horror at the commission; the frequency of capital punishments tends to destroy their proper effect.

2. A crowd; a throng. [Not used.]

FREQUENT, a. [L. frequens.]

1. Often seen or done; often happening at short intervals; often repeated or occurring. We made frequent visits to the hospital.

2. Used often to practice any thing. He was frequent and loud in his declamations against the revolution.

3. Full; crowded; thronged. [Not used.]

FREQUENT, v.t. [L. frequento.]

To visit often; to resort to often or habitually. The man who frequents a dram-shop, an ale house, or a gaming table, is in the road to poverty, disgrace and ruin.

He frequented the court of Augustus.

FREQUENTABLE, a. Accessible. [Not used.]

FREQUENTATION, n.

1. The act of frequenting.

2. The habit of visiting often.

FREQUENTATIVE, a.

In grammar, signifying the frequent repetition of an action; as a frequentative verb.

FREQUENTED, pp. Often visited.

FREQUENTER, n. One who often visits or resorts to customarily.

FREQUENTLY, adv. Often; many times; at short intervals; commonly.

FREQUENTNESS, n. The quality of being frequent or often repeated.

FRESCO, n.

1. Coolness; shade; a cool refreshing state of the air; duskiness.

2. A picture not drawn in glaring light, but in dusk.

3. A method of painting in relief on walls, performed with water-colors on fresh plaster, or on a wall laid with mortar not yet dry. the colors, incorporating with the mortar, and drying with it, become very durable. It is called fesco, either because it is done on fresh plaster, or because it is used on walls and buildings in the open air.

4. A cool refreshing liquor.

FRESH, a. [Eng. rush, which gives the radical sense, though it may not be the same word.]

1. Moving with celerity; brisk; strong; somewhat vehement; as a fresh breeze; fresh wind; the primary sense.

2. Having the color and appearance of young thrifty plants; lively; not impaired or faded; as when we say, the fields look fresh and green.

3. Having the appearance of a healthy youth; florid; ruddy; as a fresh-colored young man.

4. New; recently grown; as fresh vegetables.

5. New; recently made or obtained. We have a fresh supply of goods from the manufactory, or from India; fresh tea; fresh raisins.

6. Not impaired by time; not forgotten or obliterated. The story is fresh in my mind; the ideas are fresh in my recollection.

7. Not salt; as fresh water; fresh meat.

8. Recently from the well or spring; pure and cool; not warm or vapid. Bring a glass of fresh water.

9. In a state like that of recent growth or recentness; as, to preserve flowers and fruit fresh.

Fresh as April, sweet as May.

10. Repaired from loss or diminution; having new vigor. He rose fresh for the combat.

11. New; that has lately come or arrived; as fresh news; fresh dispatches.

12. Sweet; in a good state; not stale.

13. Unpracticed; unused; not before employed; as a fresh hand on board of a ship.

14. Moderately rapid; as, the ship makes fresh way.

FRESH, n. A freshet.

FRESHEN, v.t. fresh’n.

1. To make fresh; to dulcify; to separate, as water from saline particles; to take saltiness from any thing; as, to freshen water, fish or flesh.

2. To refresh; to revive. [Not used.]

3. In seaman’s language, to apply new service to a cable; as, to freshen hawse.

FRESHEN, v.i.

1. To grow fresh; to lose salt or saltiness.

2. To grow brisk or strong; as, the wind freshens.