different between razzle vs frazzle

English

Verb

razzle (third-person singular simple present razzles, present participle razzling, simple past and past participle razzled)

1. To dazzle or disorient

Derived terms

• razzled

See also

• razzle-dazzle

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.