fret
noun
- musical instrument part
verb
- to cause to suffer emotional strain
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /fɹɛt/ / /fɹet/ / /fɾɛt/
noun
Etymology: Attested since the mid-1800s, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to fret (“to form a pattern upon”), fret (“to consume”) (as the fog does the land), or fret (“to agitate the surface of water”) (as the wind which blows the fog inland does); compare the semantics of haar (“cold wind; misty wind; fog, mist”). Dialectally, the spelling freet and pronunciation /fɹit/ are also found, as they also are for fret (“consume; agitate”).
- A fog or mist at sea, or coming inland from the sea.
“The wind brings a fret off the ocean; not cold, but achingly damp.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).
- To bind, to tie, originally with a loop or ring.
- # To fit frets on to (a musical instrument).
“to fret a guitar”
- To press down the string behind a fret.
“Note that right next to the headstock, the boxes may utilize some open notes in place of fretting with the pointer finger because the nut will effectively fret the notes for you[…].”