Borrowed fromFrenchfrou-frou, anonomatopoeia.
- (UK, US)IPA(key): /ˈfɹuːfɹuː/
- Hyphenation:frou‧frou
frou-frou (pluralfrou-frous)
- (onomatopoeia) Arustlingsound,particularly therustling of alargesilkdress.
1870 June 4,Athenaeum, page734:The modernfrou-frou of satin and gros-de-Naples skirts is nothing to the rustling of brocaded silks.
1876, William Besantet al.,The Golden Butterfly, act I, scene vi, line108:[…]thefrou-frou of life was lost to her[…]
1901,Jack London, “The Great Interrogation”, inThe God of His Fathers[1], New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.,page34:She was pretty, charming, and, moreover, a widow. And because of this she at once had at heel any number of Eldorado Kings, officials, and adventuring younger sons, whose ears were yearning for thefrou-frou of a woman’s skirts.
1904 December,A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Second Stain”, inThe Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.:McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905,→OCLC:“Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,” said Holmes, with a smile, when the dwindlingfrou-frou of skirts had ended in the slam of the front door.
1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e.,Emma Orczy],The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published20 March 1912,→OCLC,page94:Lord Grenville took a hasty farewell of the ladies and slipped back into his box, where M. Chauvelin had sat all through thisentr’acte, with his eternal snuff-box in his hand, and with his keen pale eyes intently fixed upon a box opposite to him, where, with muchfrou-frou of silken skirts, much laughter and general stir of curiosity amongst the audience,[…]
2014 September 6,Tony Roberts, “Poem to a Friend Feeling Out of His Element”, inThe Guardian[2],→ISSN:Impervious to the cheap perfumes
and thefrou-frou of young ladies' skirts,
he finally and with deepest dread
plunged ahead, banging in his ignorance
on the keys as if they were a snare drum.
frou-frou (comparativemorefrou-frou,superlativemostfrou-frou)
- Liable tocreate thesound ofrustlingcloth,similar to19th-centurydresses.
- Highlyornamented,overlyelaborate;excessivelygirly.
They ate in afrou-frou restaurant at the top of a skyscraper.
2012 June 30, Miranda Sawyer, “Rewind radio: Love Love Love Like the Beatles; Is It Worth It?; 6-Love-6”, inThe Observer[4],→ISSN:This is a column for a Sunday paper, designed to be absorbed at leisure, over coffee andfrou-frou pastries, at around noon.
2023 January 21, Andrew Lawrence, “Netflix’s Reed Hastings changed the way we watch TV – for better or for worse”, inThe Guardian[5],→ISSN:For the price of afrou-frou Starbucks drink, a Netflix subscriber could binge this contentad nauseam without suffering through a single commercial – the ideal home viewing experience.
- (derogatory)Unimportant,silly,useless.
2008 July 15, Matthew Yglesias, “Obama's Elitism Problem, Continued”, inThe Atlantic[6]:Barack Obama, out of touch with the working man as usual, has an aggressive program for carbon emissions reductions and has spoken of the need for suchfrou-frou measures as increased investment in transit infrastructure, intercity rail, and even bicycling.
2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, inDeadlined,→ISBN, pages580–581:Dr. Okorie: Those paintings on the walls have a definite effect on people. A very specific definite effect, with wildly variable results. Would you call them de-inhibitors, Lillian?
Dr. Lillihammer: I'd call them cognition divergence vectors. I've already got the paper half-written in my mind.
Dr. Blank: Explain it to usfroufrou hard and social scientists.
Dr. Wettle: I'm notfroufrou, you'refroufrou.
frou-frou (third-person singular simple presentfrou-frous,present participlefrou-frouing,simple past and past participlefrou-froued)
- (uncommon, intransitive) Tomove with thesound ofrustlingdresses.
1894 October,The Vassar Miscellany, volume26,page81:“Oh, you funny girl! You look so surprised. Confess, now, there's nothing you can hide from me,” and ruffling my hair as she passed shefrou-froued out of the room.
1905 May 18,Truth, page1289:[…]frou-frouing femininities[…]
Almost exclusively seen in the formfrou-frouing.
Imitative.
frou-frou m (pluralfrous-frous)
- afrou-frou; a rustling sound, as of silk fabric
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,2021.