frizz

present singular third person frizzes · participle present frizzing · participle past frizzed · past frizzed · alternative dated friz

1. intransitiveOf hair, to form into a mass of tight curls.
2. transitiveTo curl; to make frizzy.

   with her hair frized short up to her ears

   1660 December 1 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “November 22nd, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   In labour-saving homes, with care, / Their wives frizz out peroxide hair.

   1937, John Betjeman, Slough

   There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; […]

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

3. To form into little burs, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth.
4. To make (leather) soft and of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument.
5. To fry, cook, or sear with a sizzling noise; to sizzle.

plural frizzes · alternative dated friz

1. countableuncountableA mass of tightly curled or unruly hair.