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Webster 1913 Edition


Froth

Froth

,
Noun.
[OE.
frothe
, Icel.
froða
; akin to Dan.
fraade
, Sw.
fradga
, AS.
āfreoðan
to froth.]
1.
The bubbles caused in fluids or liquors by fermentation or agitation; spume; foam; esp., a spume of saliva caused by disease or nervous excitement.
2.
Any empty, senseless show of wit or eloquence; rhetoric without thought.
Johnson.
It was a long speech, but all
froth
.
L’Estrange.
3.
Light, unsubstantial matter.
Tusser.
Froth insect
(Zool.)
,
the cuckoo spit or frog hopper; – called also
froth spit
,
froth worm
, and
froth fly
.
Froth spit
.
See
Cuckoo spit
, under Cuckoo.

Froth

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Frothed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
.
Frothing
.]
1.
To cause to foam.
2.
To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
He . . .
froths
treason at his mouth.
Dryden.
Is your spleen
frothed
out, or have ye more?
Tennyson.
3.
To cover with froth;
as, a horse
froths
his chain
.

Froth

,
Verb.
I.
To throw up or out spume, foam, or bubbles; to foam; as beer froths; a horse froths.

Webster 1828 Edition


Froth

FROTH

,
Noun.
frauth. [Gr.]
1.
Spume; foam; the bubbles causes in liquors by fermentation or agitation.
2.
Any empty, senseless show of wit or eloquence.
3.
Light, unsubstantial matter.

FROTH

,
Verb.
T.
To cause to foam.

FROTH

,
Verb.
I.
To foam; to throw up spume; to throw out foam or bubbles. Beer froths in fermentation. The sea froths when violently agitated. A horse froths at the mouth when heated.

Definition 2024


froth

froth

See also: froþ

English

Noun

froth (countable and uncountable, plural froths)

  1. foam
    • 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 2
      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.
    • 1922, Hugh Lofting, 8”, in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle:
      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.
    Froth is a very important feature of many types of coffee.
  1. (figuratively) unimportant events or actions; drivel
    • L'Estrange
      It was a long speech, but all froth.
    Thousands of African children die each day: why do the newspapers continue to discuss unnecessary showbiz froth?

Derived terms

Translations

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).
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book Two, Chapter 7,
      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.
    I like to froth my coffee for ten seconds exactly.
  2. (intransitive) (of a liquid) To bubble.
    • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” lines 21-4,
      Colder and louder blew the wind,
      A gale from the Northeast,
      The snow fell hissing in the brine,
      And the billows frothed like yeast.
    • 1973, “Black Day in Brussels,” Time, 19 February, 1973,
      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.
  3. (transitive) To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
    • 1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, a Tragedy, Act I, Scene 1,
      The Mufti reddens; mark that holy cheek.
      He frets within, froths treason at his mouth,
      And churns it thro’ his teeth []
    • 1859, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivien” in Idylls of the King,
      [] is your spleen frothed out, or have ye more?
  4. (intransitive) (literally) To spew saliva as froth; (figuratively) to rage, vent one's anger.
    • 1958, Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), translated by Kimon Friar, London: Secker and Warburg, Book XIII,
      The clumsy suckling struck out with her still soft claws,
      opened her frothing mouth until her milk teeth shone.
    • 1962, “Riding Crime's Crest” in Time, 25 April, 1962,
      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).
  5. (transitive) To cover with froth.
    A horse froths his chain.

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams

References

  1. froth” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).