Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To fry or burn with a sizzling noise.
  • intransitive verb To make a sizzling noise while frying or searing.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To form or be formed into small tight curls or tufts.
  • noun The condition of being frizzed.
  • noun A small tight curl or tuft.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which is frizzed or curled; a wig, as covered with frizzes: as, a frizz of hair.
  • To curl; crisp; form into a mass of small, loose, crisp curls, as the hair, with a crisping-pin; specifically, to crisp and then loosen out so as to form a light, fluffy mass of little curls.
  • To form into little burs, prominences, or knots, as the nap of cloth; raise a nap or bur on.
  • In leather-dressing, to remove the bur, prominences, or roughnesses from, as chamois and wash-leather, by rubbing with pumicestone, a blunt knife, or the like, in order to soften the surface and give a uniform thickness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb See friz, v. t. & n.
  • verb To fry, cook, or sear with a sizzling noise; to sizzle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Of hair, to form into a mass of tight curls.
  • noun A mass of tightly curled or unruly hair.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the condition of being formed into small tight curls
  • verb curl tightly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly back-formation from frizzle.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by frizzle) of French friser, from Old French, possibly from frire, fris-, to fry, from Latin frīgere, to roast, fry.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English frysen, from Old French friser, frizer ("to frizzle, crisp, curl, ruffle, braid, touch lightly, graze, scratch"), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Old Frankish *fris (“curl”), from Proto-Germanic *frisaz (“frizzy, curly”). Cognate with Old Frisian frisle, frēsle ("the hair of the head, lock of hair, curl, ringlet"; > North Frisian friessle, fressle ("hair, horse's tail"), West Frisian frisseljen ("braid of hair, braid")), Old English frīs ("crisped, curled").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English fryse, from the verb. See above.

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Examples

  • My hair was always stick straight until a few years ago, I noticed a definite "frizz" starting to develop, much to my horror!

    Memorial Day 2008 Jan 2008

  • My hair was always stick straight until a few years ago, I noticed a definite "frizz" starting to develop, much to my horror!

    Archive 2008-05-01 Jan 2008

  • I never blow dry -- just try to control the frizz and flyaways.

    HAIR karenhealey 2010

  • That's what people have been liking about it — they can still have their volume, but they get rid of the frizz, she said.

    Hair-smoothing products come under scrutiny 2011

  • For frizz taming I use clear Aloe Vera gel (wierd, but it's much nicer than other hair gel).

    HAIR karenhealey 2010

  • I still need some frizz control afterwards though.

    HAIR karenhealey 2010

  • Sated on art, we ventured out into the frizz zone, clutching our zebra-print umbrella for dear life.

    Tara Solomon: For the Love of Liz, and Other Miami Moments Tara Solomon 2012

  • By providing a drier environment, silk reduces that Kafkaesque tendency a nice blowout has of morphing into a nest of frizz overnight.

    Better Beauty Sleep Aleksandra Crapanzano 2012

  • Sated on art, we ventured out into the frizz zone, clutching our zebra-print umbrella for dear life.

    Tara Solomon: For the Love of Liz, and Other Miami Moments Tara Solomon 2012

  • No static, no frizz, no creases etched into my cheeks—something magic was clearly at work.

    Better Beauty Sleep Aleksandra Crapanzano 2012

Comments

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  • (n): a state at a particular time. Whaa...?

    August 2, 2008