Frieze
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A kind of coarse woollen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side. countable, uncountable
"[I]f a plaine fellow well and cleanely apparelled, either in home-ſpun ruſſet or freeze (as the ſeaſon requires) with a five pouch at his girdle, happen to appeare in his ruſticall likenes: there is a Cozen ſaies one, At which word out flies the Taker, and thus giues the onſet vpon my olde Pennyfather."
- 2 That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.
- 3 a heavy woolen fabric with a long nap wordnet
- 4 Any sculptured or richly ornamented band in a building or in rich pieces of furniture. broadly
- 5 an architectural ornament consisting of a horizontal sculptured band between the architrave and the cornice wordnet
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- 6 A banner with a series of pictures.
"The classroom had an alphabet frieze that showed an animal for each letter."
- 1 To make a nap on (cloth); to frizz. transitive
- 2 To put a frieze on. transitive
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"At the top of the building there is a frieze of carved ribbons."
Etymology
Late Middle English, from French and Middle French frise, probably from Medieval Latin Frisia (“Frisian (wool)”) due to import via Northern ships. Or, from French friser (“to curl”)..
From French and Middle French frise f, derived from an Upper Italian fris f, Medieval Latin frisum, frisium, frigium, frixum, frigium, of controversial origin, possibly from multiple sources, Arabic إِفْرِيز (ʔifrīz, “king beam, cornice”) and Latin opus Phrygium (“a kind of embroidery”, literally “work of Phrygia”), the demonym Frisian and terms related to the textile term above in a transferred sense.
Probably a spelling variant of Fries and Frees.
Related phrases
More for "frieze"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.