Fringe Meaning
/fɹɪnd͡ʒ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA decorative border.
nounA decorative border., A border or edging.
Sentence Examples
I recommend putting up your hair so your fringe doesn't get on your forehead.
The job comes with a lot of fringe benefits.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
She decorated the scarf with a colorful ____ of small threads.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The researcher's new theory was initially considered to be on the ____ of mainstream scientific thought.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English frenge, from Old French frenge, from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, a metathesis of Latin fimbriae (“fibers, threads, fringe”, plural), of uncertain origin. Compare German Franse and Danish frynse. Displaced native Middle English fnæd (“fringe”), Middle English byrd (“fringe”), Middle English fasel (“fringe”) from Old English fæs (“fringe”), and Old English fnæs (“fringe”). Doublet of fimbria.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The walls were hung with blue silk, edged with silver fringe; and the closely-drawn blue velvet curtains swept the ground."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 118:
"He walked up the heath’s western edge, beside a fringe of scrub where hogweed grew in tangles and brambles rose taller than him."
— 2020 March 5, Tom Lamont, “The invisible city: how a homeless man built a life underground”, in The Guardian:
"the confines of grace and the fringes of repentance"
— 1651–1653, Jer[emy] Taylor, ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC:
"Dos Santos, who has often been on the fringes at Spurs since moving from Barcelona, whipped in a fantastic cross that Pavlyuchenko emphatically headed home for his first goal of the season."
— 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:
"About an hour later, the two were sitting at a comparatively isolated table in a restaurant called Sickler’s, downtown, a highly favored place among, chiefly, the intellectual fringe of students at the college—the same students, more or less, who, had they been Yale or Harvard men, might rather too casually have steered their dates away from Mory’s or Cronin’s."
— 1955, J. D. Salinger, “Franny”, in Franny and Zooey, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1991, →ISBN, page 10:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She decorated the scarf with a colorful ____ of small threads.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The researcher's new theory was initially considered to be on the ____ of mainstream scientific thought.