frumious
Americanadjective
Usage
What does frumious mean? Frumious means very angry, as in My mom was frumious that I skipped school today.Frumious was coined by author Lewis Carroll for his children’s novel Through the Looking-Glass. It appears in the poem “Jabberwocky,” which is part of the novel.In the poem, the narrator warns his son to “shun / The frumious Bandersnatch,” a violent and enraged creature.Frumious is mostly used as Carroll intended, often in a playful rather than serious way.Example: I am absolutely frumious that they left that movie on a cliffhanger.
Etymology
Origin of frumious
Coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass (1871), a blend, Carroll claimed, of fuming and furious
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.
Tickner, who was born in New York on Sept. 8, 1946, was a former rocker with the San Francisco band Frumious Bandersnatch with bassist Ross Valory.
From Los Angeles Times
Frumious Bandersnatch — sorry, we mean Benedict Cumberbatch — lends his voice to a new episode of “The Simpsons.”
From Los Angeles Times
Coming between its completed fourth and recently announced fifth seasons and entitled "Bandersnatch," like the "frumious" creature Lewis Carroll advises shunning in "Jabberwocky," it is a feature-length interactive episode, an adventure game about an adventure game.
From Los Angeles Times
They graph, to take one example, the astounding career path of “chortle,” coined by Lewis Carroll in “Jabberwocky,” which has left its siblings “galumphing” and “frumious” in the dust.
From New York Times
But as Lewis Carroll said of the frumious bandersnatch: shun the Champs Elysees.
From BBC
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.