frizzle

present singular third person frizzles · participle present frizzling · participle past frizzled · past frizzled · alternative frizle · alternative frisle · alternative frizel · alternative frizil

1. transitiveTo fry something until crisp and curled.

   Drain and heat it [shaved smoked beef] in one tablespoonful of hot butter, to curl or frizzle it.

   1884, Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking

2. transitiveTo scorch.

   It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”

   1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court

3. intransitiveTo fry noisily, sizzle.

   The bacon frizzled in the pan.

4. ambitransitiveTo curl or crisp, as hair; to frizz; to crinkle.

   Now am I prowder of this pouertie, which I know is mine owne, than a wayting gentlewoman is, of a frizled groateſworth of haire, that neuer grewe on her head: […]

   1599 November–December (date written; published 1600), Thomas Dekker, “The Pleasant Comoedie of Old Fortunatus. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […], volume I, London: John Pearson […], published 1873, →OCLC, Act [I], scene [ii], page 98

plural frizzles · alternative frizle · alternative frisle · alternative frizel · alternative frizil

1. A curl; a lock of hair crisped.

   The frizzle-headed man-eaters were loath to leave their fleshpots so long as the harvest of human carcases was plentiful. Sometimes, when the harvest was too plentiful, they imposed on the missionaries by letting the word slip out that on such a day there would be a killing and a barbecue.

   1909 December 29, Jack London, “The Whale Tooth”, in South Sea Tales, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, page 61

2. A frizzle fowl