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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Frazzle

Frazzle \Fraz"zle\, n.

  1. The act or result of frazzling; the condition or quality of being frazzled; the tag end; a frayed-out end. [Prov. Eng. & U. S.]

    My fingers are all scratched to frazzles.
    --Kipling.

  2. a state of extreme exhaustion; -- often used in the phrase

    worn to a frazzle. [WordNet sense 1]

    Gordon had sent word to Lee that he ``had fought his corps to a frazzle.''
    --Nicolay & Hay (Life of Lincoln).

Frazzle

Frazzle \Fraz"zle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Frazzled; p. pr. & vb. n. Frazzling.] [Cf. G. faseln, and E. fray.] To fray; to wear or pull into tatters or tag ends; to tatter; -- used literally and figuratively. [Prov. Eng. & U. S.]

Her hair was of a reddish gray color, and its frazzled and tangled condition suggested that the woman had recently passed through a period of extreme excitement.
--J. C. Harris.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
frazzle

c.1825, "to unravel" (of clothing), from East Anglian variant of 17c. fasel "to unravel, fray" (as the end of a rope), from Middle English facelyn "to fray" (mid-15c.), from fasylle "fringe, frayed edge," diminutive of Old English fæs "fringe, border." Related: Frazzled, frazzling. Compare German Faser "thread, fiber, filament," Middle Dutch vese "fringe, fiber, chaff." Probably influenced in form by fray (v.).

frazzle

"worn-out condition," 1865, American English, from frazzle (v.).

Wiktionary
frazzle

n. 1 (context informal English) A burnt fragment; a cinder or crisp. 2 (context informal English) The condition or quality of being frazzled; a frayed end. vb. 1 (cx transitive English) To fray or wear down, especially at the edges. 2 (cx transitive English) To drain emotionally or physically.

WordNet
frazzle
  1. n. a state of extreme exhaustion; "he was worn to a frazzle"

  2. v. wear away by rubbing; "The friction frayed the sleeve" [syn: fray]

  3. exhaust physically or emotionally; "She was frazzled after the visit of her in-laws"

Usage examples of "frazzle".

Her hair was a frazzled pile, her arms skeletal and blotchy, her thin frame clad in a micromini and tank top.

Vic Junior went up to bat, hit a single off the frazzled Taiwanese pitcher, and brought his teammates home.

Lucky Duck Daycare Jessie had to dash inside herself, scoop up one cranky Bas and flee, while simultaneously bestowing air kisses and gratitude upon the frazzled staff.

Then he remembered that a long and complex meeting of the Landholders Council was being held in the lower briefing chambers, and his wife would probably come back frazzled and disgusted at the uncooperative representatives.

But, too jacked on his throbbing palang to enter the grace of a profound descent, he spent fitful hours drifting in an imaginary dugout on the current of his breath into the twilight country at the borders of consciousness, ending eventually amid a haunted grove of ironwood trees festooned with hundreds of dismembered arms and legs dangling like gaudy ornaments in all the colors of corruption from frazzled ropes of human hair, this grotesque mobile swinging silently in the soupy green light of the forest, blood dropping in a scattered singsong rhythm upon the outstretched leaves, the tumbled logs, the swaying ferns, the befouled beds of sodden moss.

When Doc got downtown he went in and turned on the lights in the drugstore and Poor Tot came in right behind him wearing her aqua chenille robe and house shoes, looking as frazzled as she had the last time this had happened.

For hours thereafter, a steady stream of blazoned carriages crammed to bursting with boxes, hastily stuffed bundles and frazzled silk-clad humanity rolled down the long white-gravel led drive, past knots of jeering citizens, through the gate and out of the royal enclosure.

So I worked Dapple and Buck to a frazzle, and ended up riding Montana horse who was turning into a real cow horse.

An elegant silver-haired woman in a bronze suit sat silent beside a frazzled mom with three children, all with double-jumbo McValue-Happy meals -- gigantic Cokes, burgers, fries, beans, fruit bowls, and pumpkin pies -- more than three adults could eat, but a good deal because each item was cheaper in the McValue meal than it would have been by itself.

They found a corner not too near the gaming machine or the frazzled loudspeaker of the jukebox.

By two-thirty, she was feeling frazzled, struggling with the gift wrap she was afraid she would never get the hang of.

Patsy was frazzled with the hecticness of the holidays and preparations for the trip to Michigan, which Thomas says she did not want to make.

She needed to leave Platte City, Nebraska, before this killer unraveled any more of her already frazzled psyche.

There was a little silver spoon, a man's frazzled stocking, and a battered lump of tin from which hung scraps of paper that once had proclaimed the lump to be a can of pork and beans.

And that's simply to never give up—no matter how frazzled and confused the preps make you.