FRITTER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Fritter

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/frˈɪtər/ Listen

noun

Fritter n.

A small quantity of batter, fried in boiling lard or in a frying pan. Fritters are of various kinds, named from the substance inclosed in the batter; as, apple fritters, clam fritters, oyster fritters.

A fragment; a shred; a small piece. "And cut whole giants into fritters."

Corn fritter. See under Corn.

verb

Fritter v. t. (past & past part. frittered; pres. part. frittering)

To cut, as meat, into small pieces, for frying.

To break into small pieces or fragments. "Break all nerves, and fritter all their sense."

To fritter away, to diminish; to pare off; to reduce to nothing by taking away a little at a time; also, to waste piecemeal; as, to fritter away time, strength, credit, etc.

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Etymology of 'Fritter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fritter" Quotes from Famous Books

... the report of Shortland and Magrath, we are wholly unable to reconcile the report of our Legislature with those which they assume as facts, and upon which the principles of their report were, in part, predicated. It exhibits to our view a disposition to fritter away the enormities of the British Government, and a determination to justify them in every act of barbarity, however unjustifiable in its circumstances, or however ...

— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... natural boys, that used to be "Back Home," boys whose daddies tormented them with: "Well, we Il see—" that's so exasperating!—or, "I wish you wouldn't tease, when you know we can't spare the money just at present." A perfectly foolish answer, that last. They had money to fritter away at the grocery, and the butcher-shop, and the dry-goods store, but when it came to a necessity of life, such as going to the circus, they let on they couldn't afford it. A ...

— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... participation in local political conflicts seriously distressed many of Roosevelt's friends and associates. They felt that he was too big to fritter himself away on small matters from which he—and the cause whose great champion he was—had so little to gain and so much to lose. They wanted him to wait patiently for the moment of destiny which they felt sure would come. But it was never easy for Roosevelt to wait. ...

— Theodore Roosevelt and His Times - A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement; Volume 47 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Harold Howland

... it; it suits me and I am not without hopes that I shall do well at it. I live almost the life of a recluse, seeing very few people and going nowhere that I can help—I mean in the way of parties and so forth; if my friends had their way they would fritter away my time without any remorse; but I made a regular stand against it from the beginning and so, having my time pretty much in my own hands, work hard; I find, as I am sure you must find, that it is next to impossible to combine what is ...

— Samuel Butler: A Sketch • Henry Festing Jones

... Village philosophy," stormed Penelope. "You haven't the courage, the understanding to commit one big splendid sin that even the angels in heaven might approve, but you fritter away your souls and spoil your bodies in cheap little sins that ...

— Possessed • Cleveland Moffett

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