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definitions

fraught

[frawt]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fraught ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

Archaic. filled or laden (with): ships fraught with precious wares.

noun

Scot. a load; cargo; freight (of a ship).

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RELATED WORDS

filled, replete, charged, abounding, heavy, laden, stuffed, attended, bristling

Idioms

    fraught with, full of; accompanied by; involving: a task fraught with danger.

Origin of fraught

1300–50; Middle English < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vracht freight money, freight; compare Old High German frēht earnings, Old English ǣht possession
Related formso·ver·fraught, adjectiveun·fraught, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fraught

Contemporary Examples of fraught

Historical Examples of fraught

  • There was infinite pathos in the tones as she repeated the words so fraught with dreadfulness.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • His mind was fraught with independence, magnanimity, and every manly virtue.

  • Not only was such an act sacrilegious in its nature, but it was fraught with peril.

    White Fang

    Jack London

  • Yet their embrace was fraught with suffering and they released one another.

  • The ride had been nightmare-like, fraught every second with peril.

    Raiders Invisible

    Desmond Winter Hall

British Dictionary definitions for fraught

fraught

adjective

(usually postpositive and foll by with) filled or charged; attendeda venture fraught with peril
informal showing or producing tension or anxietyshe looks rather fraught; a fraught situation
archaic (usually postpositive and foll by with) freighted

noun

an obsolete word for freight

Word Origin for fraught

C14: from Middle Dutch vrachten, from vracht freight
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for fraught
v.

early 14c., "laden" (of vessels), past participle of Middle English fraughten "to load (a ship) with cargo," from fraght "cargo, lading of a ship" (early 13c.), variant of freight; influenced by Middle Dutch vrachten "to load or furnish with cargo," from Proto-Germanic *fra-aihtiz (see freight (n.)). Figurative sense is first attested 1570s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper