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• fry
  fry

  verb (used with object)

  to cook in a pan or on a griddle over direct heat, usually in fat or oil.
• Fry
  Fry

  noun

  Christopher, 1907–2005, English playwright.

fry

¹ American  

[frahy] / fraɪ /

verb (used with object)

• fries,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fried,
  past participle,  past
• frying
  present participle

1. to cook in a pan or on a griddle over direct heat, usually in fat or oil.

2. Slang. to execute by electrocution in an electric chair.

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verb (used without object)

• fries,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fried,
  past participle,  past
• frying
  present participle

1. to undergo cooking in fat or oil.

2. Slang. to die by electrocution in an electric chair.

noun

• fries
  plural

1. a dish of something fried.

2. a piece of french-fried potato.

3. a party or gathering at which the chief food is fried, frequently outdoors.

   a fish fry.

fry ² American  

[frahy] / fraɪ /

noun

• fry,
  plural,  plural
• fries
  plural

1. a young fish.

   a salmon fry.

2. a young animal of certain other kinds, as frogs and oysters.

3. a person, especially a young or unimportant one.

   The prime minister had to bank on the cooperation of lesser fry.

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Fry ³ American  

[frahy] / fraɪ /

noun

1. Christopher, 1907–2005, English playwright.

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fry ¹ British  

/ fraɪ /

verb

1. to cook or be cooked in fat, oil, etc, usually over direct heat

2. informal (intr) to be excessively hot

3. slang to kill or be killed by electrocution, esp in the electric chair

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noun

1. a dish of something fried, esp the offal of a specified animal

   pig's fry

2. a social occasion, often outdoors, at which the chief food is fried

3. informal the act of preparing a mixed fried dish or the dish itself

Fry ² British  

/ fraɪ /

noun

1. Christopher . 1907–2005, English dramatist; author of the verse dramas A Phoenix Too Frequent (1946), The Lady's Not For Burning (1948), and Venus Observed (1950)

2. Elizabeth . 1780–1845, English prison reformer and Quaker

3. Roger Eliot . 1866–1934, English art critic and painter who helped to introduce the postimpressionists to Britain. His books include Vision and Design (1920) and Cézanne (1927)

4. Stephen ( John ). born 1957, British writer, actor, and comedian; his novels include The Liar (1991) and The Stars' Tennis Balls (2000)

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fry ³ British  

/ fraɪ /

plural noun

1. the young of various species of fish

2. the young of certain other animals, such as frogs

3. young children See also small fry

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fryable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fries
  plural
• fry
  plural

Participles

• frying
  present
• fried
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fry
  simple
• fries
  simple
• have fried
  perfect
• has fried
  perfect
• am frying
  progressive
• are frying
  progressive
• is frying
  progressive
• have been frying
  perfect progressive
• has been frying
  perfect progressive

Past

• fried
  simple
• had fried
  perfect
• was frying
  progressive
• were frying
  progressive
• had been frying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fry
  simple
• will have fried
  perfect
• will be frying
  progressive
• will have been frying
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of fry¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; 1925–30 fry ¹ for def. 2; Middle English frien, from Anglo-French, Old French frire, from Latin frīgere “to roast”

Origin of fry²

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English frie, fry “seed, descendant,” perhaps from Old Norse frjō “seed”; cognate with Swedish frö, Gothic fraiw “seed”

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Explanation

To fry food is to cook it in very hot oil until it's crispy. For breakfast, you could fry yourself an egg, and maybe fry some bacon to go with it. You can stir fry vegetables and deep fry doughnuts — and you have to be careful on a hot summer day not to (figuratively) fry yourself in the sun. When fry is a noun, it's usually short for "French fry," but it also means youngster, or "small fry." This less common meaning comes from Scottish, possibly from the Old Norse root frjo, "offspring."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fry Fry fries fried frying

You can force yourself to stop eating— “I’m just going to put that french fry down.”

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026

Smaller improvements — like adjusting the amount of oil used to fry chicken and tweaking other fryer settings — would go a long way across its more than 46,000 restaurants worldwide, executives said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

"I've also got a big shipment of herring which is a wonderful and a very traditional Shetland fish to fry."

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

Payment systems take bitcoin, and for customers who pull up in Teslas, there are free supersize fry upgrades served in gold boxes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

But there we were, spending a lazy Saturday afternoon with our father, eating chicken I didn’t have to cut, clean, and fry.

From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia

Rong-Gong Lin II and Hannah Fry contributed to this report.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

Times staff writers Jasmine Mendez, Hannah Fry and Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026

Ahead of the roundtable, Fry told producers she knew she would have to fight like her life depended on it - because it did - and try to disguise herself as still being a faithful.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Hart is still suspicious of Fry, however, after realising the mathematician had orchestrated events after the crypt to make Myha'la look less innocent.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

A quarter mile from Fry, a couple of human-shaped silhouettes were visible at the forest border.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles

Mr. Meyer reluctantly met with the nephew over Shake Shack burgers and fries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

I like to put the fries on the burger.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Its protein could feed a chicken or a pig, its oil could fry French fries or propel a truck, and its lecithin could emulsify chocolate or mayonnaise.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

I don’t eat meat, so I’ll do a beer, French fries with “truffle,” shrimp tacos and maybe some candy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

The horrified look on Dad’s face when he realized he couldn’t afford our hamburgers and fries.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

She looked at me, then glanced back at the booth where Barry was gesturing wildly at a piece of fried onion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

Taco Bell certainly has, using fried chicken, biscuits, waffles and even fried cheese.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Industrial trans fats, which can be present in some processed and fried foods, have been strongly linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

Sporting a futuristic leather-textured suit, Lady Gaga can be seen working behind the counter, offering fried chicken to customers and restocking bottled tea in the video clip released on Friday.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

“It’s Jewish street food—mashed potato in a pocket of fried dough—totally yummy.”

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

The factory in Thornton-Cleveleys first start operating in the 1950s, when ICI manufactured coating for non-stick frying pans using PFOA.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

If you heat up food—by frying it in a pan, for example—it will usually form some amount of acrylamide without adding any other ingredients at all.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026

It appeared as cooking oil, frying fat, shortening, salad dressing, mayonnaise and an inconspicuous ingredient in packaged foods.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

I usually prepare the batter just before frying because it comes together so easily—you just whisk the flour with lukewarm water and the egg whites.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Our apartment smells like frying parsnips and sausages, which I brought home yesterday.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse

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