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.
First recorded in 1350–1400, for the adjective
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."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
During the day, the Figueroas’ neighborhood hums with laborers and vendors selling Red Bull drinks and fried food from their cars.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 20, 2026
Also, in the mix, there are California poppies, Channel Islands Tree poppies and tall Matilija poppies that look like fried eggs.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Don’t be afraid of any crackling; cumin seeds should sizzle when fried.
From Salon • Jun. 7, 2026
"For the next week we just had tuna every day, it was a bit like Forrest Gump and the shrimp, we had curried tuna, fried tuna, battered tuna, beer-battered tuna, raw tuna."
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026
The two of them were eating fried chicken, the sort you buy from under heat lamps in convenience stores, and watching “Sally Jessy Raphael” on a portable black-and-white TV.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
