frith

1. archaicpoeticrareuncountablePeace; security.

   Thus the king declares that he wants to see his peace or 'frith' extended to his people and that moots are urged to frith all that the king wills to be frithed

   1973, University of Western Australia Law Review - Volume 11, page 21

2. obsoleteuncountableSanctuary, asylum.

present singular third person friths · participle present frithing · participle past frithed · past frithed · alternative freath

1. obsoletetransitiveTo protect; guard.

   This monument and the Cairns themselves have been purchast by the State, and are now therefore "frithed", protected and national property.

   1868, George Stephens, The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandanavia and England, page 732

   1 more example

   Thus the king declares that he wants to see his peace or 'frith' extended to his people and that moots are urged to 'frith all that the king wills to be frithed

   1973, University of Western Australia Law Review - Volume 11, page 21

2. obsoletetransitiveTo enclose; fence in, as a forest or park.

   On the other of these improvements, the base of the mound was six feet, its height five feet, and breadth at the top nearly the same; this, with the side-drains or ditches on each side, made the whole scite of the fence about 12 feet; cost of raising the mound and frithing, 4s . per perch.

   1808, Charles Vancouver, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon, page 134

   2 more examples

   In the halfe circle enclosed between the flood-gate and the compasse frith, there is digged a round pit, of three foot diameter, and foure foot depth, frithed on the sides, which is continually fedde with the water soaking from the sayd flood-gate, and serueth to keepe any fish aliue, that you haue before taken, and so to saue ouer often drawing.

   1811, Richard Carew, Thomas Tonkin, Francis Basset Baron Basset of Stratton, Carew's Survey of Cornwall, page 249

   During the same period, Mr. Davis has also enclosed open copse-woods of oak, on the south of the Teivy 90 acres, on the north of the teivy, 100 acres: all fenced with a foss and mound, planted on the top with quicks, which are "frithed" or guarded on the outside by a hedge of wattled trouse.

   1815, Great Britain. Board of Agriculture, Agricultural Surveys: pts. 1-2. South Wales (1815), page 51

plural friths

1. A forest or wood; woodland generally.

   As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell; [...]

   1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 11 p. 174

2. UKdialectalLand with mostly undergrowth and few trees; also, land in between forests or woods; pastureland which is not in use.
3. Brushwood or undergrowth, sometimes in the form of a hedge.
4. A hedge, especially one made from brushwood which has been wattled; also, a movable frame made from wattled branches, a hurdle.
5. obsoleteA kind of weir made from wattled branches for catching fish.

plural friths

1. alternativearchaicAlternative form of firth (“an arm or inlet of the sea”).

   He [Agricola] had observed, that the island [Britannia; now Great Britain] is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland.

   1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I, ch 1-pt i

   2 more examples

   / The southern hills / That to the setting Sun, their graceful heads / Rearing, o'erlook the frith, where Vecta breaks / With her white rocks, the strong impetuous tide, / When western winds the vast Atlantic urge / To thunder on the coast

   1807, Charlotte Turner Smith, Beachy Head

   A Low-Germanic tongue, usually called by those who spoke it Englisc, or English, but which by us is usually styled Anglo-Saxon, was the speech of all the Teutonic inhabitants of Great Britain from the Channel to the Frith of Forth.

   1879, Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury, History of the English Language, page 67

1. A surname.
2. A town in Montserrat (in the safe zone).