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Fret vs Spall - What's the difference?

fret | spall |

In transitive terms the difference between fret and spall

is that fret is to chafe or irritate; to worry while spall is to reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

As verbs the difference between fret and spall

is that fret is to devour, consume; eat while spall is to break into fragments or small pieces.

As nouns the difference between fret and spall

is that fret is the agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or other cause; a rippling on the surface of water while spall is a splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.

As an initialism FRET

is förster resonance energy transfer.

fret

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To devour, consume; eat.
  • * (rfdate)— Piers Ploughman.
  • Adam freet of that fruit, And forsook the love of our Lord.
  • * Wiseman
  • Many wheals arose, and fretted one into another with great excoriation.
  • (transitive, and, intransitive) To gnaw, consume, eat away.
  • To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.
  • A wristband frets on the edges.
  • To cut through with fretsaw, create fretwork.
  • To chafe or irritate; to worry.
  • To worry or be anxious.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.}}
  • To be vexed; to be chafed or irritated; to be angry; to utter peevish expressions.
  • *
  • *:Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
  • * Dryden
  • He frets , he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground.
  • To make rough, agitate, or disturb; to cause to ripple.
  • to fret the surface of water
  • To be agitated; to be in violent commotion; to rankle.
  • Rancour frets in the malignant breast.
  • (music) To press down the string behind a fret.
  • To ornament with raised work; to variegate; to diversify.
  • * Spenser
  • whose skirt with gold was fretted all about
  • * Shakespeare
  • Yon grey lines, / That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
  • (Addison)
  • Agitation of mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.
  • He keeps his mind in a continual fret .
  • * Pope
  • Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret .
  • Herpes; tetter.
  • (Dunglison)
  • (mining, in the plural) The worn sides of river banks, where ores, or stones containing them, accumulate by being washed down from the hills, and thus indicate to the miners the locality of the veins.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) < (etyl), from the verb (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music) One of the pieces of metal/wood/plastic across the neck of a guitar or other musical instrument that marks note positions for fingering.
  • An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines (often in relief).
  • * Evelyn
  • His lady's cabinet is adorned on the fret , ceiling, and chimney-piece with carving.
  • (heraldiccharge) A saltire interlaced with a mascle.
  • Derived terms
    * fretboard

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A strait; channel.
  • Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dialectal, North East England) A fog or mist at sea or coming inland from the sea.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    spall

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl)

    Alternative forms

    *spawl

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
  • *1974 , (GB Edwards), The Book of Ebenezer Le Page , New York 2007, p. 13:
  • *:My father knew Bert Le Feuvre, the foreman of Griffith's yard, and there was a little heap of spawls waiting ready every night in summer after school for me to crack.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To break into fragments or small pieces.
  • (Pryce)
  • To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) spalla.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vi:
  • Their mightie strokes their haberieons dismayld, / And naked made each others manly spalles [...].

    Anagrams

    *