frou-frou

Syllables: frou·frou/ˈfɹuːfɹuː/

frou-frou noun: a rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress.

Noun

frou-frou (plural frou-frous)

(onomatopoeic) A rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress.
- The modern frou-frou of satin and gros-de-Naples skirts is nothing to the rustling of brocaded silks.1870 June 4, Athenaeum, page 734
- […]the frou-frou of life was lost to her[…]1876, William Besant et al., The Golden Butterfly, act I, scene vi, line 108

frou-frou (comparative more frou-frou, superlative most frou-frou)

Liable to create the sound of rustling cloth, similar to 19th-century dresses.
Highly ornamented, overly elaborate; excessively girly.
- They ate in a frou-frou restaurant at the top of a skyscraper.
- Kinda like a frou-frou dessert at a chichi restaurant, restaurant.2009 September 1, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #204: dictionary”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman)
Synonyms:

fruffy
(derogatory) Unimportant, silly, useless.
- Bob was off faffing about doing frou-frou nonsense whilst Edwina kept her nose to the grindstone.
- Barack Obama, out of touch with the working man as usual, has an aggressive program for carbon emissions reductions and has spoken of the need for such frou-frou measures as increased investment in transit infrastructure, intercity rail, and even bicycling.2008 July 15, Matthew Yglesias, “Obama's Elitism Problem, Continued”, in The Atlantic

frou-frou (third-person singular simple present frou-frous, present participle frou-frouing, simple past and past participle frou-froued)

(intransitive, uncommon) To move with the sound of rustling dresses.
- “Oh, you funny girl! You look so surprised. Confess, now, there's nothing you can hide from me,” and ruffling my hair as she passed she frou-froued out of the room.1894 October, The Vassar Miscellany, volume 26, page 81
- […]frou-frouing femininities[…]1905 May 18, Truth, page 1289

உடையின் சலசலப்பு

And because of this she at once had at heel any number of Eldorado Kings, officials, and adventuring younger sons, whose ears were yearning for the frou-frou of a woman’s skirts.1901, Jack London, “The Great Interrogation”, in The God of His Fathers, New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 34:
“Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,” said Holmes, with a smile, when the dwindling frou-frou of skirts had ended in the slam of the front door.1904 December, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Second Stain”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure...
This is a column for a Sunday paper, designed to be absorbed at leisure, over coffee and frou-frou pastries, at around noon.2012 June 30, Miranda Sawyer, “Rewind radio: Love Love Love Like the Beatles; Is It Worth It?; 6-Love-6”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
For the price of a frou-frou Starbucks drink, a Netflix subscriber could binge this content ad nauseam without suffering through a single commercial – the ideal home viewing experience.2023 January 21, Andrew Lawrence, “Netflix’s Reed Hastings changed the way we watch TV – for better or for worse”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Noun
plural	frou-frous
alternative form	froufrou
alternative form	froo-froo
alternative form	fru-fru
alternative form	froofroo
alternative form	frufru
Adjective
comparative	more frou-frou
superlative	most frou-frou
Verb
third-person singular present	frou-frous
present participle	frou-frouing
past participle	frou-froued
past	frou-froued

Borrowed from French frou-frou, an onomatopoeia.

What does frou-frou mean?: Frou-frou means a rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress.
What is frou-frou in Tamil?: Frou-frou in Tamil is உடையின் சலசலப்பு. See Frou-frou meaning in Tamil.
How do you use frou-frou in a sentence?: And because of this she at once had at heel any number of Eldorado Kings, officials, and adventuring younger sons, whose ears were yearning for the frou-frou of a woman’s skirts.
What part of speech is frou-frou?: Frou-frou can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce frou-frou?: Frou-frou is pronounced /ˈfɹuːfɹuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of frou-frou?: The plural of frou-frou is frou-frous.

Adapted from Wiktionary: frou-frou (page history and authors); frou-frou (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-frou-frou.wav.

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