frounce
/fɹaʊns/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 0.00 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To curl.
Example Sentences
- "The hawke had no lyst To come to his fyst; She loked as she had the frounce; […]"
- "I say that the eyass should have her meat unwashed, until she becomes a brancher—’twere the ready way to give her the frounce, to wash her meat sooner, and so knows every one who knows a gled from a falcon."
- "Beard untrimmed by barber's shears, Hair all frouncing 'bout his ears,"
- "As though to give him a warlike note, his clothes were thrown on in a slovenly way, and his moustache frounced out so shock and bristling that it seemed from each hair-end a crackling oath must start with every word he said."
- "Under the day-long beating of the sun their brow is frounced out, […]"
- "The unruly, shoulder-length hair of the redeemed made a strong contrast to the well-tended coiffures of fashionable men, who "frounced their hair with curling irons" and wore long "love locks" tied with ribbons or silk favors."
Etymology
From Middle English frouncen, from Old French froncir "to wrinkle, frown", from Frankish *hrunkiju (“a wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Akin to Old High German runza "fold, wrinkle, crease" (German Runzel "wrinkle"), Middle Dutch ronse "frown", Old Norse hrukka "wrinkle, crease" (Icelandic hrukka "wrinkle, crease, ruck"). More at ruck₂.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.