different between spend vs fritter

English

Etymology

From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds ?spendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spend?n (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of expend. Cognate with Old High German spent?n (“to consume, use, spend”) (whence German spenden (“to donate, provide”)), Middle Dutch spenden (“to spend, dedicate”), Old Icelandic spenna (“to spend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

spend (third-person singular simple present spends, present participle spending, simple past and past participle spent)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To pay out (money).
2. To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.

   • I […] am never loath / To spend my judgment.

3. (dated) To squander.

4. To exhaust, to wear out.

   • their bodies spent with long labour and thirst

5. To consume, to use up (time).
   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 26:

     Clara's father, a trollish ne'er-do-well who spent most of his time in brothels and saloons, would disappear for days and weeks at a stretch, leaving Clara and her mother to fend for themselves.
6. (dated, transitive, intransitive) To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.

7. (intransitive) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
8. To be diffused; to spread.
9. (mining) To break ground; to continue working.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

spend (countable and uncountable, plural spends)

1. Amount of money spent (during a period); expenditure.

   I’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.

2. (in the plural) Expenditures; money or pocket money.
3. Discharged semen.
4. Vaginal discharge.

Translations

Anagrams

• pends

English

Etymology

From Old French friture.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??t?/
• (US) enPR: fr?t??r, IPA^(key): /?f??t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

fritter (plural fritters)

1. A dish made by deep-frying food coated in batter.
2. A fragment; a shred; a small piece.

   • And cut whole giants into fritters.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fritter (third-person singular simple present fritters, present participle frittering, simple past and past participle frittered)

1. (intransitive, often with about, around, or away) To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.

   I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.

   He can’t figure out how to finish the paper he’s writing, so he’s resorted to frittering with the fonts.

   It is quite possible to fritter one's life away in answer to the endless calls of others.

2. (transitive) To sinter.
3. (transitive) To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.
4. (transitive) To break into small pieces or fragments.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• tempura

French

Verb

fritter

1. (transitive) to fritter / sinter

Conjugation

Further reading

• “fritter” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).