Word.ws English Dictionary

froth

/ˈfɹɔθ/UK/ˈfɹɒθ/

froth noun: foam.

Noun

froth (countable and uncountable, plural froths)

  1. Foam.
    • Froth is a very important feature of many types of coffee.
    • He replaced her again breadthwise on the couch, unable to sit up, with her thighs open, between which I could observe a kind of white liquid, like froth, hanging about the outward lips of that recently opened wound, which now glowed with a deeper red.1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) Unimportant or insubstantial talk, events, or actions; drivel.
    • Thousands of African children die each day: why do the newspapers continue to discuss unnecessary showbiz froth?
    • The discussion at the conference was mostly froth and posturing.
  3. The idle rich.
    • That it offers the best imaginable field for the economical employment of the least useful of our population, viz. "the froth and the dregs,” those of both extremes of the social scale who prefer adventure, excitement, action, idleness if you will, to steady plodding business ways.1871, Sir Edward Robert Sullivan, The Froth and the Dregs, page 112
    • I do not think that there were in the boxes or the lower part of the house a score of persons who were not identified, in one way or another, with this froth of New York society.1899 September, James L. Ford, “The Froth of New York Society”, in Munsey's Magazine, volume 21, number 6, page 954
  4. Highly speculative investment.
    • Efforts of this kind, spurred on to fever heat by tax incentives can only generate inflationary froth - not real hard investment.1966, United States Congress House Committee on Ways and Means, Legislative History of H.R. 17607, 89th Congress, page 1329
    • In effect Friedman and Scwartz are not blaming the Fed for creating asset market inflation (and as we have seen, this concept should include the empowerment of irrational forces across asset markets including the giant carry trades) by its polices through 1927 and earlier; but they are admitting...2018, Brendan Brown, The Case Against 2 Per Cent Inflation, page 179

Verb

froth (third-person singular simple present froths, present participle frothing, simple past and past participle frothed)

  1. (transitive) To create froth in (a liquid).
    • I like to froth my coffee for ten seconds exactly.
    • One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third, presented the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured the chocolate out.1859, Charles Dickens, “Book Two, Chapter 7”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC
  2. (intransitive) (of a liquid) To bubble.
    • Colder and louder blew the wind,
      A gale from the Northeast,
      The snow fell hissing in the brine,
      And the billows frothed like yeast.1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Wreck of the Hesperus, lines 21–4
    • English beer, along with European brews, is already the subject of an EEC investigation to determine whether additives like stabilizers (used to prevent frothing during shipment) should be allowed.1973 February 19, “Black Day in Brussels”, in Time
  3. (transitive) To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
    • The Mufti reddens; mark that holy cheek.
      He frets within, froths treason at his mouth,
      And churns it thro’ his teeth […]1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 14
    • […] is your spleen frothed out, or have ye more?1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC
  4. (intransitive) (literally) To spew saliva as froth; (figuratively) to rage, vent one's anger.
    • The clumsy suckling struck out with her still soft claws,
      opened her frothing mouth until her milk teeth shone.1958, Nikos Kazantzakis, translated by Kimon Friar, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, London: Secker and Warburg, published 1938, Book XIII
    • As doctors tried in vain to save April's right eye, news stories frothed at her assailant. He was “fiendish” (the Examiner), “sadistic” (the News-Call Bulletin), “probably a sexual psychopath” (the Chronicle).1962 April 25, “Riding Crime's Crest”, in Time
  5. (transitive) To cover with froth.
    • A horse froths his chain.

froth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

froth in Hindi

foam
झाग jhāg

froth in Tamil

நுரை

froth in Marathi

To create froth
फेसाळणे phesāḷṇe

froth in Urdu

جھاگ, کف
More languagesFewer languages
froth in Telugu
నురుగు nurugu, నురగ nuraga
froth in Malayalam
പത pata, നുര nura
froth in Kannada
ನೊರೆ, ಬುರುಗು, ನೀರಿನ ಗುಳ್ಳೆ, ಬುದ್ಬುದ
froth in Punjabi
ਝੱਗ jhagga, جَھگّ jhagg
froth in Odia
ଫେଣ pheṇa
froth in Sanskrit
तण्डक taṇḍaka, उच्छ्वास ucchvāsá
froth in Arabic
رَغْوَة raḡwa

Examples of froth in a sentence

  • Froth or scum at the paper machine consists largely of clay, rosin, and starch.1907, Clayton Beadle, Chapters on Papermaking, page 71:
  • Shortly after we started, while still off the lower end of the island, we sighted a steep point on the coast where the sea was in a great state of turmoil, white with soapy froth.1922, Hugh Lofting, “8”, in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle:
  • The efficiency goal forces management to consider the real business over many years and not just the froth business that lasts a few years.2002, Clive Reading, Strategic Business Planning, page 149:
  • Voltaire says that the population of England is like her ale: at the top there is nothing but froth; at the bottom there is nothing but dregs; but between these extremes all is excellent.1908, Lionel Arthur Tollemache, Old and Odd Memories, page 104:

All 40 example sentences with froth

Forms of froth

Noun
pluralfroths
Verb
third-person singular presentfroths
present participlefrothing
past participlefrothed
pastfrothed

Plural of froth: froths

Origin of froth

From Middle English froth, frooth, froþ, likely a borrowing from Old Norse froða, from Proto-Germanic *fruþǭ; Old English āfrēoþan (“to foam, froth”) is from same Germanic root. Verb attested from late 14th century. Compare Swedish fradga.

Words formed from froth

Phrases with froth

Words that rhyme with froth

Questions about froth

What does froth mean?
Froth means foam.
What is froth in Hindi?
Froth in Hindi is झाग (jhāg). See Froth meaning in Hindi.
How do you use froth in a sentence?
Froth or scum at the paper machine consists largely of clay, rosin, and starch.
What part of speech is froth?
Froth can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce froth?
Froth is pronounced /ˈfɹɒθ/ (UK).
What is the plural of froth?
The plural of froth is froths.

Words near froth in the dictionary

  1. frot
  2. frotdog
  3. frotdogs
  4. frote
  5. froterer
  6. froth
  7. froth at the gash
  8. froth at the mouth
  9. froth flotation
  10. froth pack
  11. froth packs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: froth (page history and authors); froth (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); froth (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); froth (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଫେଣ (Odia) (page history and authors); उच्छ्वास (Sanskrit) (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-froth.ogg.

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