frith
/fɹɪθ/
frith noun: peace; security. Also the alternative form of firth.
Noun (1)
frith (uncountable)
Verb
frith (third-person singular simple present friths, present participle frithing, simple past and past participle frithed)
- To protect; guard.
- This monument and the Cairns themselves have been purchast by the State, and are now therefore "frithed", protected and national property.1868, George Stephens, The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandanavia and England, page 732
- Thus the king declares that he wants to see his peace or 'frith' extended to his people and that moots are urged to 'frith all that the king wills to be frithed1973, University of Western Australia Law Review - Volume 11, page 21
- To enclose; fence in, as a forest or park.
- On the other of these improvements, the base of the mound was six feet, its height five feet, and breadth at the top nearly the same; this, with the side-drains or ditches on each side, made the whole scite of the fence about 12 feet; cost of raising the mound and frithing, 4s . per perch.1808, Charles Vancouver, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon, page 134
- In the halfe circle enclosed between the flood-gate and the compasse frith, there is digged a round pit, of three foot diameter, and foure foot depth, frithed on the sides, which is continually fedde with the water soaking from the sayd flood-gate, and serueth to keepe any fish aliue, that you haue...1811, Richard Carew, Thomas Tonkin, Francis Basset Baron Basset of Stratton, Carew's Survey of Cornwall, page 249
Noun (2)
frith (plural friths)
- A forest or wood; woodland generally.
- As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell; [...]1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 11 p. 174
- Land with mostly undergrowth and few trees; also, land in between forests or woods; pastureland which is not in use.
- Brushwood or undergrowth, sometimes in the form of a hedge.
- A hedge, especially one made from brushwood which has been wattled; also, a movable frame made from wattled branches, a hurdle.
- A kind of weir made from wattled branches for catching fish.
Proper noun capitalized: Frith
Frith
- A surname.
- A town in Montserrat (in the safe zone).
Also used as
frith is also the alternative form of firth.
Forms of frith
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | friths |
| present participle | frithing |
| past participle | frithed |
| past | frithed |
| alternative form | freath |
| Noun | |
| plural | friths |
Origin of frith
From Middle English frith, from Old English friþ, friþu (“peace, tranquility, security, refuge”), from Proto-West Germanic *friþu, from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace, reconciliation”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“beloved, happy”). Cognate with Dutch vrede (“peace, quiet, tranquility”), German Frieden (“peace, tranquility”), Danish fred (“peace, serenity”), Swedish frid (“peace, serenity”), Icelandic friður (“peace, tranquility”). Related to free.
From Middle English frithen, from Old English friþian (“to give frith to, make peace with, be at peace with, cherish, protect, guard, defend, keep, observe”), from Proto-Germanic *friþōną (“to make peace, secure, protect”), from Proto-Indo-European *prēy-, *prāy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with Scots frethe, freith (“to set free, liberate”), Danish frede (“to have peace, protect, inclose, fence in”), Swedish freda (“to cover, protect, quiet, inclose, fence in”), Icelandic friða (“to make peace, preserve”).
From Middle English frith (“forest, woodland; hedging”), from Old English fyrhþe, fyrhþ (“forest, wooded country; game preserve, hunting ground”), from Proto-West Germanic *furhiþi (“forest, woodland”), Proto-Germanic *furhiþją (“forest, wooded country”), *furhiþǭ, from *furhu (“fir; pine”), from *furahō, *furhō (“fir; pine; (fir or pine) forest”), from Proto-Indo-European *pérkus (“oak”), from *perkʷ- (“oak”). The English word is cognate with Latin quercus (“oak”), Old English fyrh (“fir, pine”), Old High German forst, foreht (“forest”), Old Norse fýri (“pine-wood, coniferous forest”). Latin foresta (whence eventually English forest), may be borrowed from the same West Germanic source.
Words formed from frith
Phrases with frith
Words that rhyme with frith
Questions about frith
- What does frith mean?
- Frith means peace; security.
- What part of speech is frith?
- Frith can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce frith?
- Frith is pronounced /fɹɪθ/.
- What is the plural of frith?
- The plural of frith is friths.
Words near frith in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: frith (page history and authors); Frith (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-frith.wav.
Cite this entry: “frith.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frith. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.