fritter
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
fritters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
frittered,
past participle, past
-
frittering
present participle
-
to squander or disperse piecemeal; waste little by little (usually followed byaway ).
to fritter away one's money; to fritter away an afternoon.
- Synonyms:
- dissipate
-
to break or tear into small pieces or shreds.
verb (used without object)
-
fritters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
frittered,
past participle, past
-
frittering
present participle
-
to dwindle, shrink, degenerate, etc. (often followed byaway ).
to watch one's fortune fritter away.
-
to separate or break into fragments.
a plastic material having a tendency to fritter.
noun
noun
verb
-
(usually foll by away) to waste or squander
to fritter away time
-
to break or tear into small pieces; shred
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
frittersimple
-
fritterssimple
-
have fritteredperfect
-
has fritteredperfect
-
am fritteringprogressive
-
are fritteringprogressive
-
is fritteringprogressive
-
have been fritteringperfect progressive
-
has been fritteringperfect progressive
Past
-
fritteredsimple
-
had fritteredperfect
-
was fritteringprogressive
-
were fritteringprogressive
-
had been fritteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fritter1
1720–30; earlier fitter, derivative of fit ( Old English fitt ) a part
Origin of fritter2
1350–1400; Middle English friture, frytour < Old French friture < Late Latin frīctūra a frying, equivalent to Latin frict ( us ), past participle of frīgere to fry 1 + -ūra -ure
Explanation
A person who fritters chooses to spend their energy on things that are wasteful. You can fritter money, time, or energy, but once you've "frittered it away," you can't get it back! The first time you get a paycheck, you might be tempted to go on a spending spree, buying fireworks, a rabbit costume, and a giant gumball machine. But be careful, because if you fritter away your hard-earned cash like that, you won’t have any left for important things, like food and rent. The Old English root of the word means “break into fragments,” which is what happens to someone who fritters their life away.
Vocabulary lists containing fritter
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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:
For now, however, many young workers should still be able to find positions so they can afford to fritter away their youth, as is tradition.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Arsenal had led the Premier League by as many as nine points, only to fritter away its advantage and briefly fall out of first in late April.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
Restaurant-delivery apps have become “an easy, and lazy, way to fritter your money away instead of investing,” Valega said.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026
He called the party a “mess” and wondered how its leaders might fritter away the momentum.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025
“Frances. Let’s go, buddy. Let’s not fritter away the best part of the day here….Let’s go, buddy.”
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Order a round of fritters, a rum punch and a plate of griot, a citrusy pork dish that is slow-braised and then fried until crisp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Our tablemates had purchased a litany of fried options, including scotch eggs from the Quail Inn, which also serves bacon-wrapped jalapeño peppers, cheese fritters and “whole, partially deboned quail.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
Faced with a chilly house, some users might then dial up the power on their heat pump - but if you do that, much of the efficiency advantage fritters away, he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
Highlights of the evening include bay water sweet oysters, tuna crudo, crab bisque fritters and pan-seared Alaskan halibut. 5-9 p.m.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
It was a Saturday and Olanna was making banana fritters with Ugwu in the kitchen, and when the doorbell rang she knew right away that a message had come from Mama.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Some lines may be familiar: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”; “Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
Sam Burns and Adam Scott had frittered away their overnight advantage.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
Giddy with the view across central Oregon and suddenly reconnected to cell service, I frittered away my smartphone battery during a solo climb on Mount Jefferson in October 2019.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
Soon after, at 5-2, Alcaraz held two match points that he frittered away; he got broken for the first time to make it 5-3; and another match point came and went at 5-4.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
Or I could drive out to this Garland place and demand that the grandmother replace the funds Cap frittered away.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
Fisher and Day can’t even secure jobs, stuck literally and metaphorically frittering away their youth in the back seat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
“It’s not that we don’t have the money. It’s that we don’t like frittering it away.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
All he’s doing with this feral pawing for a message is frittering that away.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2024
But if it hit the wall, it would at least tie the game and allow the Mariners another chance at the expected victory they were in the process of frittering away.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
It was like all the good and true things he’d ever done didn’t matter, and he, who he was, the legacy he’d worked so hard for, was dissolving, frittering away with every lie they told.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
