different between frazzle vs frazzled

English

Etymology

Originally an East Anglian word. Either from a variant of the now obsolete fazle (“to unravel”), altered due to influence from fray, or from a blend of fazle and fray. fazle comes from earlier fasel, which was inherited from Middle English facelyn (“[of the end of a rope, or of cloth] to unravel”). Middle English facelyn was a verbal derivative of the noun fasylle (“frayed edge”), which was in turn a derivative (with the diminutive suffix -el) of Old English fæs (“fringe, border”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas, from Proto-Germanic *fas?n.

Related to German Faser (“fibre”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fræzl?/
• Rhymes: -æz?l

Verb

frazzle (third-person singular simple present frazzles, present participle frazzling, simple past and past participle frazzled)

1. (transitive) To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
   • 1887, Joel Chandler Harris, Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches

     Her hair was of a reddish-gray color, and its frazzled and tangled condition suggested that the woman had recently passed through a period of extreme excitement.

2. (transitive) To drain emotionally or physically.

3. (transitive) to burn

Noun

frazzle (plural frazzles)

1. (informal) A burnt fragment; a cinder or crisp.

   The bacon was burned to a frazzle.

2. (informal) The condition or quality of being frazzled; a frayed end.
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous Chapter III

     My fingers are all cut to frazzles.

   • 1886-90, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History

     Gordon had sent word to Lee that he "had fought his corps to a frazzle.

English

Verb

frazzled

1. simple past tense and past participle of frazzle

Adjective

frazzled (comparative more frazzled, superlative most frazzled)

1. frayed at the edges
2. (colloquial) stressed and exhausted either physically or emotionally

Derived terms

• frazzledness
• unfrazzled

Translations