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fritter away

 - 3 dictionary results

frit⋅ter

1  [frit-er]
Use fritter away in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to squander or disperse piecemeal; waste little by little (usually fol. by away): to fritter away one's money; to fritter away an afternoon.
2. to break or tear into small pieces or shreds.
–verb (used without object)
3. to dwindle, shrink, degenerate, etc. (often fol. by away): to watch one's fortune fritter away.
4. to separate or break into fragments: a plastic material having a tendency to fritter.
–noun
5. a small piece, fragment, or shred.
Origin:
1720–30; earlier fitter, deriv. of fit (OE fitt) a part

Related forms:
frit⋅ter⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
1. dissipate, frivol away, idle away.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

fritter  (v.)
"whittle away," 1728, from fritters "fragment or shred," possibly alteration of 16c. fitters "fragments or pieces," perhaps ultimately from O.Fr. fraiture "a breaking," from L. fractura.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

fritter away

Squander or waste little by little; wear down gradually. For example, She frittered away her salary on odds and ends and saved nothing. This expression was first recorded in Alexander Pope's Dunciad (1728): "How prologues into prefaces decay, And these to notes are fritter'd quite away."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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