Froth Meaning
/fɹɒθ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounFoam.
nounUnimportant or insubstantial talk, events, or actions; drivel.
Sentence Examples
A drop, falling into water, makes a bubble; many bubbles make froth.
Beat the whites of 3 eggs to a stiff froth.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fresh beer had a thick ____ on top of the glass.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The cook used a whisk to create a light ____ on the surface of the creamy hot chocolate.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English froth, frooth, froþ, likely a borrowing from Old Norse froða, from Proto-Germanic *fruþǭ; Old English āfrēoþan (“to foam, froth”) is from same Germanic root. Verb attested from late 14th century. Compare Swedish fradga.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He replaced her again breadthwise on the couch, unable to sit up, with her thighs open, between which I could observe a kind of white liquid, like froth, hanging about the outward lips of that recently opened wound, which now glowed with a deeper red."
— 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
"Froth or scum at the paper machine consists largely of clay, rosin, and starch."
— 1907, Clayton Beadle, Chapters on Papermaking, page 71:
"Shortly after we started, while still off the lower end of the island, we sighted a steep point on the coast where the sea was in a great state of turmoil, white with soapy froth."
— 1922, Hugh Lofting, “8”, in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle:
"But is it possible for those who speak of God promiscuously and at random, is it possible that they should utter his Name with reverence, when all the rest of the Discourse is nothing but Froth and Levity?"
— 1692, Ezekiel Hopkins, An Exposition on the Ten Commandments, page 185:
"They are equally useless and equally ridiculous, but the coquet is the most pernicious: his mind is a vacuum, and hers a plenum; froth itself is too ponderous for the one, and nothing but froth is crammed into the other."
— 1807, Thomas Holcroft, The Vindictive Man: A Comedy, in Five Acts, page 21:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fresh beer had a thick ____ on top of the glass.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The cook used a whisk to create a light ____ on the surface of the creamy hot chocolate.