fry
/fɹaɪ/
fry verb: to cook (something) in hot fat.
Verb (1)
fry (third-person singular simple present fries, present participle frying, simple past and past participle fried)
- To cook (something) in hot fat.
- I am frying the eggs.
- To cook in hot fat.
- The eggs are frying.
- To simmer; to boil.
- With crackling flames a caldron fries.1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- Ye might haue seene the frothy billowes fry1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To suffer because of too much heat.
- You'll fry if you go out in this sun with no sunblock on.
- To execute, or be executed, by the electric chair.
- He's guilty of murder: he's going to fry.
- To destroy (something, usually electronic), often with excessive heat, voltage, or current.
- If you apply that much voltage, you'll fry the resistor.
- Taking drugs for years fried his brain.
- To entertain (a person) greatly; to make to laugh thoroughly.
- This joke is absolutely frying me.
Noun (1)
fry (plural fries)
- A long, thin fried piece of cut potato.
- Synonyms:
- chip, French fry
- A long, thin fried piece of other foods.
- halloumi fries
- A meal of fried sausages, bacon, eggs, etc.
- Synonyms:
- fry-up
- The liver of a lamb.
- Synonyms:
- liver
- A lamb or calf testicle.
- Synonyms:
- prairie oyster, Rocky Mountain oyster, tendergroin
- A state of excitement.
- to be in a fry
Noun (2)
fry (uncountable)
- Young fish; fishlings.
- it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other frie; that must be the Angels Ministery at the end of mortall things.1644, John Milton, Areopagitica
- Offspring; progeny; children; brood.
- Keen was the frost and crisp the snow over our world; and we young fry of the King households were all agog to enjoy life—for was it not Saturday, and were we not left all alone to keep house?1913, Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Golden Road, L.C. Page & Co.
- A swarm, especially of something small.
- a fry of children
- The spawn of frogs.
Noun (3)
fry (plural fries)
Verb (2)
fry (third-person singular simple present fries, present participle frying, simple past and past participle fried)
- To make a brushwood drain.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: FRY
FRY
- Initialism of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- With a few strokes, the international creditors helped dismember the FRY and put a fiscal headlock on the newly “independent” republics.2000, Michael Parenti, chapter 2, in To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, New York: Verso, →ISBN, page 21
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Fry
Fry
- A surname.
fry meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
fry in Hindi
- to cook (something) in hot fat or oil
- तलना talnā
fry in Tamil
- to cook (something) in hot fat or oil
- வறு vaṟu
- (intransitive) cook in hot fat or oil
- வறு vaṟu
fry in Marathi
- तळणे, तळून घ्या, तळणी
fry in Urdu
- to cook (something) in hot fat or oil
- تلنا talnā
More languagesFewer languages
- fry in Bengali
- ভাজুন, ভাজতে
- fry in Telugu
- వేపు vēpu, వేగు vēgu, వేపుడు vēpuḍu
- fry in Malayalam
- വറുക്കുക vaṟukkuka, വറ vaṟa
- fry in Kannada
- ಹುರಿಯಲು, ಫ್ರೈ ಮಾಡಲು
- fry in Punjabi
- ਤਲ਼ਣ, ਤਲ਼ਣਾ, ਤਲ਼ਨਾ
- fry in Gujarati
- તળવું, ફ્રાય કરવા માટે
- fry in Odia
- ଭାଜିବା, ଭାଜି ନିଅନ୍ତୁ, ଭଜାଅ
- fry in Sanskrit
- भृज्जति bhṛjjati
- fry in Assamese
- ভাজা bhaza, ভজা bhoza
- fry in Arabic
- قَلَى qalā
- fry in Malay
- goreng, anak ikan
- fry in Persian
- ویجیدن
- fry in Thai
- ทอด tɔ̂ɔt
- fry in Vietnamese
- chiên, rán
- fry in Myanmar
- ကြော် krau
Examples of fry in a sentence
- He forgot that the frying pan was hot and burned his hand.
- The frying pan was coated with a layer of non-stick material, making it easier to wash.
- The teenagers went down to the drive-in to order some hamburgers and fries.
Synonyms of fry
Forms of fry
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | fries |
| present participle | frying |
| past participle | fried |
| past | fried |
| Noun | |
| plural | fries |
Origin of fry
Inherited from Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”). Related to bhurji, bhujia (“fried Indian snacks”).
From Middle English frie (“spawn of fish, young or small fish, offspring, progeny, children”), probably from Old Norse frjó (“seed, semen”), from Proto-Germanic *fraiwą (“seed, semen, offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per-, *(s)prey- (“to strew, sow”). Cognate with Icelandic frjó (“pollen, seed”), Icelandic fræ (“seed”), Swedish frö (“seed, embryo, grain, germ”), Danish and Norwegian frø (“seed”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍅 (fraiw, “seed”). Likely merging with Old French froiz, froie (“spawn, spawning”), from froier, freier (“to spawn”), from Latin fricō (“to rub”). Compare friable.
Dialectal, of obscure origin. Perhaps related to or a corruption of frith (“a wood, forest", also "brushwood, wattle”), from Middle English fryth, frith (“forest, woodland, a fence of brush or wattle, hedge”).
Words formed from fry
- Frytown
- air-fry
- bigger fish to fry
- deep-fat-fry
- deep-fry
- dry-fry
- fish to fry
- flash-fry
- fried
- fryable
- frybread
- fry cook
- fryer
- frying
- frying pan
- fry jack
- frypan
- fry pan
- fry pie
- fry someone's bacon
- fry up
- frywood
- have other fish to fry
- mind-frying
- more important fish to fry
- overfry
- pan-fry
- parfry
- refry
- shallow-fry
- unfry
- stir-fry
- a few fries short of a Happy Meal
- calf fries
- cottage fries
- curly fry
- fish fry
- French fry
- fries
- fry sauce
- glottal fry
- Hangtown fry
- home fry
- lamb fries
- lamb's fry
- one fry short of a Happy Meal
- three fries short of a Happy Meal
- tornado fry
- Ulster fry
- vocal fry
- fryling
- sac fry
- small fry
Phrases with fry
Words that rhyme with fry
Questions about fry
- What does fry mean?
- Fry means to cook (something) in hot fat.
- What is fry in Hindi?
- Fry in Hindi is तलना (talnā). See Fry meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is fry?
- Fry can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fry?
- Fry is pronounced /fɹaɪ/.
- What is the past tense of fry?
- The past tense of fry is fried.
Words near fry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fry (page history and authors); FRY (page history and authors); Fry (page history and authors); fry (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fry (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fry (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fry (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fry (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fry (Odia, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fry.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.