fried
adjective
cooked in a pan or on a griddle over direct heat, usually in fat or oil.
Showing results for "fried"
fried
1 American
[frahyd]
/ fraɪd /
adjective
-
cooked in a pan or on a griddle over direct heat, usually in fat or oil.
-
Slang.
-
intoxicated from drugs; high.
-
exhausted or incapacitated through intemperance; burned-out.
verb
Fried
2
American
[freed, fr eet]
/ frid, frit /
noun
fried
British
/ fraɪd /
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fried
First recorded in 1350–1400, for the adjective
Explanation
Things that are fried are cooked in very hot fat or oil. You can order fried rice at a Chinese restaurant, or fried clams at your favorite seafood place. Some foods are lightly stir fried, while others are submerged in boiling oil and deep fried. At a state fair, there are offerings including fried dough and fried chicken, and it's even possible to eat fried candy bars or fried ice cream. Colloquially, someone who's exhausted might say, "I'm totally fried." Fried comes from the verb fry, which has the Latin root frigere, both "to fry" and "to roast."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Robots sorting parcels and serving fried chicken enthralled visitors at a robotics expo in Beijing on Wednesday, where hundreds of companies set out their pitches for a future labour market transformed by artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
My first bite of Hong Kong is a fried soup dumpling, filled with truffled pork and that holy trinity, garlic, ginger, scallion.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
Anderson’s Billy steps out of the shadows with a full face of femme fatale makeup and a syrupy Dolly Parton drawl, promptly serving Kris enough fried chicken to feed a bobsled team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Fried foods featured in my quiz included the fried pork tenderloin sandwich, which was popularized in Indiana.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
There’s also a bowl of fufu—starchy dough that Ama used to make for holidays—and a few trays of chofi, fried turkey tail that my uncle always seems to overcook.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
He also raved about chicken fried steak, posting on X: “Every Scottish person in America needs to immediately try Chicken Fried Steak, and you’ll realise we and the Americans are kindred spirits.”
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
The influence of the Queen City is ubiquitous: The fast food is Skyline Chili, not Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the Reds and Bengals are as important as the Wildcats.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
It’s locked up like the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026
“I can’t suddenly switch things up and make something different. I know how to make tofu dishes. Fried tofu. Tofu dumplings. I couldn’t make pork cutlet.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Fried chicken and boiled ham, baked sweet potatoes, peach pickles, big buttermilk biscuits, cookies, cakes, apples, boiled eggs, I don’t know what all.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
