Word.ws English Dictionary

french

/fɹɛnt͡ʃ//fɹɛnt͡ʃ/

french verb: to prepare food by cutting it into strips.

Verb (1)

french (third-person singular simple present frenches, present participle frenching, simple past and past participle frenched)

  1. (transitive) To prepare food by cutting it into strips.
  2. (transitive) To kiss (another person) while inserting one’s tongue into the other person's mouth.
    • Tom frenched her full in the mouth.1988, Wanda Coleman, A War of Eyes and other stories, page 151
    Synonyms:
    French kiss
  3. (intransitive) To kiss in this manner.
    • We frenched by the wall.2003, Susan Steinberg, The End of Free Love, page 81
  4. To French trim; to stylishly expose bone by removing the fat and meat covering it (as done to a rack of lamb or bone-in rib-eye steak).

Proper noun capitalized: French

French (countable and uncountable, plural Frenches)

  1. (uncountable) The language of France, shared by the neighboring countries Belgium, Monaco, and Switzerland and by former French colonies around the world.
    • She speaks French.
    • Ne mowe we alle Latin wite...
      Ne French...c. 1390, Robert Grosseteste, translating Chateau d'Amour as The Castle of Love, ll. 25 ff.
  2. (uncountable) The ability of a person to communicate in French.
    • My French is a little rusty.
    • [Racine's] language is the language of the times, and that of the purest sort; so that his French is reckoned a standard.1742 April 4, R. West, letter to Thomas Gray
  3. (uncountable) French language and literature as an object of study.
    • I'm taking French next semester.
  4. (euphemistic, ironic, often, uncountable) Vulgar language.
    • Pardon my French.
    • The enraged headsman spares no 'bad French' in explaining his motives.1845, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Adventure in New Zealand, volume I, page 327
  5. (countable) A surname originating as an ethnonym.
    • Dawn French.
    • David French was a high profile #nevertrump conservative who even toyed with running for president against him.2017 July 14, Jason Wilson, “Like father like son? What conservatives are writing about Donald Trump Jr”, in The Guardian

Noun capitalized: French

French (countable and uncountable, plural French or Frenches)

  1. (collective, in plural) The people of France; groups of French people.
    • The Hundred Years' War was fought between the English and the French.
    • Under the Fourth Republic, more and more French unionized.
  2. (dated, slang, uncountable) Synonym of oral sex, especially fellatio.
    • French--^([sic]) to do the French--Cocksucking; and, inversely, to tongue a woman.1916, Henry Nathaniel Cary, The Slang of Venery and Its Analogues, volume I, page 94
    • You can be whipped or caned... or you can have French for another pound.1968, Bill Turner, Sex Trap, page 64
    Synonyms:
    oral sex
  3. (abbreviation, dated, ellipsis, slang, uncountable) Ellipsis of French vermouth, a type of dry vermouth.
    • Tearle replied that gin-and-French and virginian cigarettes would do for him.1930, Ethel Mannin, Confessions & Impressions, page 177
    • He was drinking double gins with single Frenches in them.1967, Michael Francis Gilbert, The Dust & the Heat, page 14
  4. (countable, non-native speakers' English) A French person.

Adjective capitalized: French

French (comparative more French or Frencher, superlative most French or Frenchest)

  1. Of or relating to France.
    • the French border with Italy
    • The religious interpretation of socialism and the conception of a new epoch as the fulfilment of the true content of Christianity were, in fact, current coin in the French socialism of the 1830s and 1840s.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in...
  2. Of or relating to the people or culture of France.
    • French customs
  3. Of or relating to the French language.
    • French verbs
    Synonyms:
    Gallian, Gallic, Gaulish
  4. (slang) Of or related to oral sex, especially fellatio.
    • French active
    • French girl
  5. (euphemistic, informal, often) Used to form names or references to venereal diseases.
    • French disease
    • French crown
  6. Used to form names or references to an unconventional or fancy style.
    • French curve
    • French cut

Verb (2) capitalized: French

French (third-person singular simple present Frenches, present participle Frenching, simple past and past participle Frenched)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of french.
    • Even before I thought about what I was doing we Frenched and kissed with tongues.1995, Jack Womack, Random Acts of Senseless Violence, page 87

french meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

french in Hindi

prepare food by cutting it into strips
खाद्य पदार्थ के टुकड़े करना khādya padārth ke ṭukṛe karnā

french in Tamil

பிரெஞ்சு, ஃப்ரெஞ்சு

french in Marathi

prepare food by cutting it into strips
अन्नपदार्थाचे कापे करणे annapdārthāce kāpe karṇe

french in Urdu

فرانسیسی, فرانچی
More languagesFewer languages
french in Bengali
ফরাসি, ফরাসী
french in Telugu
ఫ్రెంచ్, ఫ్రెంచింగ్, ఫ్రెంచి
french in Malayalam
ഫ്രഞ്ച്, ഫ്രെഞ്ചിംഗ്, ഫ്രെഞ്ച്
french in Kannada
ಫ್ರೆಂಚ್, ಫ್ರೆಂಚಿಂಗ್, ಫ್ರೆಂಚರು
french in Punjabi
ਫ੍ਰੈਂਚਿੰਗ, ਫਰਾਂਸੀਸੀ, ਫਰੈਂਚ
french in Gujarati
ફ્રેન્ચ, ફ્રેન્ચને
french in Odia
ଫରାସୀ, ଫ୍ରେଞ୍ଚିଂ, ଫ୍ରେଞ୍ଚ୍
french in Nepali
फ्रान्सेली, फ्रेन्च

Examples of french in a sentence

  • French knights at Agincourt were unable to broach the English line.
  • French cuisine is considered to be one of the world's most refined and elegant styles of cooking.
  • I've been handling my diet okay, but french fries still call to me when I go out.

All 40 example sentences with french

Synonyms of french

Forms of french

Verb
third-person singular presentfrenches
present participlefrenching
past participlefrenched
pastfrenched
third-person singular presentFrenches
present participleFrenching
past participleFrenched
pastFrenched
alternative formfrench
Proper noun
pluralFrenches
Noun
pluralFrench
pluralFrenches
Adjective
comparativemore French
comparativeFrencher
superlativemost French
superlativeFrenchest

Past tense of french: frenched

Origin of french

From Middle English French, Frensch, Frensh, from Old English Frencisc (“of the Franks, Frankish, French”), from Franca (“a Frank”). Compare Old High German Franko (“a Frank”), akin to Old English franca (“javelin, spear”), from the use of such weapons by the Franks.

Inherited from Middle English Frenche, Frensch, Frensc, Frenshe, Frenk, Franche, from Old English Frenċisċ (“Frankish, French”), from Proto-West Germanic *Frankisk (“Frankish”), equivalent to Frank + -ish (compare Frankish). Cognate with Middle Low German vranksch, frenkisch, vrenkesch, vrenksch (“Frankish, French”), Middle High German vrenkisch, vrensch ("Frankish, Franconian; > German fränkisch (“Frankish, Franconian”)), Danish fransk (“French”), Swedish fransk, fransysk (“French”), Icelandic franska (“French”). Doublet of Frankish; piecewise doublet of Francis, Franz, and Francisco, which are derived from Late Latin Franciscus In reference to vulgar language, from expressions such as pardon my French in the early 19th century, originally in reference to actual (but often mildly impolite) French expressions by the upper class, subsequently adopted ironically by the lower class for English curse words under the charitable conceit that the listener would not be familiar with them. In reference to vermouth, a shortened form of French vermouth, distinguished as usually being drier than Italian vermouth.

Words formed from french

Phrases with french

159 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with french

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about french

What does french mean?
French means to prepare food by cutting it into strips.
What is french in Hindi?
French in Hindi is खाद्य पदार्थ के टुकड़े करना (khādya padārth ke ṭukṛe karnā). See French meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is french?
French can be a verb, a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce french?
French is pronounced /fɹɛnt͡ʃ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of french?
The past tense of french is frenched.

Words near french in the dictionary

  1. fren's
  2. frena
  3. frenal
  4. frenatin
  5. frenatins
  6. french
  7. French 75
  8. French 75s
  9. French Academy
  10. French active
  11. French Alexandrine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: french (page history and authors); French (page history and authors); french (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); french (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-French.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-french.wav.

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