frazzle
/ˈfɹæz(ə)l/
frazzle verb: to fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
Verb
frazzle (third-person singular simple present frazzles, present participle frazzling, simple past and past participle frazzled)
- To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
- The new puppy has been chewing on everything, and my favorite afghan has become frazzled.
- Frazle, to unravel or rend cloth. Frazlings, threads of cloth, torn or unravelled.a. 1825, Forby, Voc. E. Anglia
- To drain emotionally or physically.
- After dealing with the children all day, I just can’t help feeling frazzled.
- One’s garments get frazzled in the grass; one’s mind and body and spiritual sense sometimes become frazzled, torn to pieces, good-for-nothing.1893 December, The American Missionary, New York: American Missionary Association, page 418
Noun
frazzle (plural frazzles)
- A burnt fragment; a cinder or crisp.
- The bacon was burned to a frazzle.
- The condition or quality of being frazzled; a frayed end.
- Gordon had sent word to Lee that he had fought his corps to a frazzle1886–90, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History
- Two years ago his nerves were worn to a frazzle over an attempt made to levy a tax.1894 January 2nd, The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus
- A messy situation or scene.
- It ends with a splendid phone conversation between Robin and her mother. Robin (Laura Luz) is a frazzle of choreographed energy as her explanations are obviously leading to more trouble.1980 December 20, Stewart Landers, “Triangle Produces Good Gay Theater”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 22, page 14
- This is getting to be a real frazzle. We've had more odd characters running around here since that girl moved in than I have the patience to deal with2006, Mark Coggins, The Immortal Game, Big Earth Publishing, →ISBN, page 19
Examples of frazzle in a sentence
- Her hair was of a reddish-gray color, and its frazzled and tangled condition suggested that the woman had recently passed through a period of extreme excitement.1887, Joel Chandler Harris, Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches:
- The little girl, a little dancing imp with a frazzle of flying red hair and red-brown eyes.1908, Alice MacGowan, Judith of the Cumberlands, page 29:
Forms of frazzle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | frazzles |
| present participle | frazzling |
| past participle | frazzled |
| past | frazzled |
| alternative form | frazle |
| Noun | |
| plural | frazzles |
Origin of frazzle
Originally an East Anglian word. Either from a variant of the now obsolete fazle (“to unravel”), altered due to influence from fray, or from a blend of fazle and fray. fazle comes from earlier fasel, which was inherited from Middle English facelyn (“[of the end of a rope, or of cloth] to unravel”). Middle English facelyn was a verbal derivative of the noun fasylle (“frayed edge”), which was in turn a derivative (with the diminutive suffix -el) of Old English fæs (“fringe, border”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas, from Proto-Germanic *fasōn. Related to German Faser (“fibre”).
Words formed from frazzle
- frazzled
- frazzlement
- frazzlings
Words that rhyme with frazzle
Questions about frazzle
- What does frazzle mean?
- Frazzle means to fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
- How do you use frazzle in a sentence?
- Her hair was of a reddish-gray color, and its frazzled and tangled condition suggested that the woman had recently passed through a period of extreme excitement.
- What part of speech is frazzle?
- Frazzle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce frazzle?
- Frazzle is pronounced /ˈfɹæz(ə)l/.
- What is the past tense of frazzle?
- The past tense of frazzle is frazzled.
Words near frazzle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: frazzle (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-frazzle.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-frazzle.wav.
Cite this entry: “frazzle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frazzle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.