fretty

¹ American  

[fret-ee] / ˈfrɛt i /

adjective

frettier, frettiest

1. fretful; irritable; peevish.

---

fretty ² American  

[fret-ee] / ˈfrɛt i /

adjective

Heraldry.

1. covered with criss-crossed and interlacing diagonal strips.

   argent, fretty sable.

---

Etymology

Origin of fretty¹

First recorded in 1835–45; fret ¹ + -y ¹

Origin of fretty²

1555–65; < Middle French frette, derivative of frete trelliswork. See fret ², -ee

Example Sentences

Miss Lizzy, she gets fretty, but she still the same Miss Lizzy.

From "Girls Like Us" by Gail Giles

And, like some Yolande of the days of yore, My long and amply folded skirts I wear, O'er-painted with the blazon that I bear —Gules, a fess azure; purpure, fretty, or.

From A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Marriage, Ellen

My madam is at the theatre, and the baby has been fretty for two hours, and just a minute ago he stiffened out like this.

From Revelations of a Wife The Story of a Honeymoon by Garrison, Adele

The small polar bears, meanwhile, satiated with exercise, air, and light, had begun to grow restive and fretty.

From The Far Horizon by Malet, Lucas

The Frette, in more recent Heraldry, has generally superseded the original field fretty.

From The Handbook to English Heraldry by Utting, R. B.