Word.ws English Dictionary

fratch

/fɹæt͡ʃ/

fratch noun: a dispute, a quarrel; a fight or brawl.

Noun

fratch (plural fratches)

  1. (UK) A dispute, a quarrel; a fight or brawl.
    • -I ha' never had no fratch afore, sin ever I were born, wi' any o' my like; Gonnows I ha' none now that's o' my makin'.1854, Charles Dickens, “read online”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC

Verb

fratch (third-person singular simple present fratches, present participle fratching, simple past and past participle fratched)

  1. (UK, Yorkshire) To argue, to quarrel; to fight.
    • "I am just talking to relieve myself, John. I know better than to fratch with anyone—at least I think I do."1915, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Measure of a Man

Forms of fratch

Noun
pluralfratches
Verb
third-person singular presentfratches
present participlefratching
past participlefratched
pastfratched

Origin of fratch

From Middle English fracchen (“to make a harsh or strident noise; creak”). Cognate with Scots fratch (“to quarrel”).

Words formed from fratch

Questions about fratch

What does fratch mean?
Fratch means a dispute, a quarrel; a fight or brawl.
What part of speech is fratch?
Fratch can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce fratch?
Fratch is pronounced /fɹæt͡ʃ/.
What is the plural of fratch?
The plural of fratch is fratches.

Words near fratch in the dictionary

  1. Fratarcangeli
  2. frataxin
  3. frataxins
  4. fratboy
  5. fratboys
  6. fratch
  7. fratched
  8. fratches
  9. fratchety
  10. fratching
  11. fratchy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fratch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fratch.wav.

Cite this entry: “fratch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fratch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.