Fretwork
noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Ornamental woodwork either carved in low relief or cut through. countable, uncountable
"Very interested, Dr Grimsby watched the saw follow the fine pencil line on the white pearwood as Peter dexterously twirled the veneers on the fretwork table, timing the movement of both hands precisely to put no strain on either the saw or the wood."
- 2 framework consisting of an ornamental design made of strips of wood or metal wordnet
Example
More examples"Very interested, Dr Grimsby watched the saw follow the fine pencil line on the white pearwood as Peter dexterously twirled the veneers on the fretwork table, timing the movement of both hands precisely to put no strain on either the saw or the wood."
Etymology
From fret (verb) + -work.
More for "fretwork"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.