frills

Noun

frill (plural frills)

1. A strip of pleated fabric or paper used as decoration or trim.
   • […] one of her husband Jeffery’s shirts (with frills to the bosom) […]1777, Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth), Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, London: G. Robinson and J. Bew, Volume 5, Chapter 114, p. 163

   Synonyms:

   flounce, furbelow, ruffle

2. (figuratively) A substance or material on the edge of something, resembling such a strip of fabric.
   • Nothing moved in sky, land, or sea, except a frill of milkwhite foam along the nearer angles of the shore, shreds of which licked the contiguous stones like tongues.1874, Thomas Hardy, “Adventures by the Shore”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 206
3. A wrinkled edge to a film.
4. (figuratively) Something extraneous or not essential; something purely for show or effect; a luxury.
   • My name is Sammy Carleton. Not ‘Mr.’ Carleton, but just plain Sammy. I’m a regular no-nonsense man with no fancy frills about me. I want you to call me Sammy.1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “A Matter of Æsthetics”, in The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 3, page 381
5. The relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles, with either a bony support or a cartilaginous one.
   • A large admiral lizard leapt up on a rail, stood on hind legs with fore legs raised like hands and watched for a moment […], then loped down the cess-path with arms swinging and iridescent frill flying out like a cape […]1943, Xavier Herbert, chapter 14, in Capricornia, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton-Century, page 227

   Synonyms:

   neck frill

6. Synonym of armilla.

   Synonyms:

   armilla

See all 11 meanings of frill