Word of the Day

: January 8, 2014

fraught

adjective FRAWT

What It Means

1 : full of or accompanied by something specified - used with "with"

2 : causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension : uneasy

fraught in Context

The new treatment is regarded as promising but fraught with potential side effects.

"Parents from some cultures are not as comfortable reading with their children because books were not part of their everyday lives growing up. For other parents, reading with children is a fraught activity because of their own negative experiences learning to read." -From an article by Elaine Reese in The Atlantic, December 9, 2013

Did You Know?

"The drowmound was so hevy fraught / That unethe myght it saylen aught." That verse, from the 14th-century poem "Richard Coer de Lion," says that a large ship (a dromond) was so heavily loaded that it could barely sail. That's the first instance on record of the adjective "fraught." The word came to Middle English from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German noun "vracht," which meant "load" and which is also the source of the word "freight." For centuries, "fraught" was used only of loaded ships, but its use eventually broadened. American English speakers are most likely to encounter "fraught" as part of the phrase "fraught with," meaning "full of or accompanied by." The "uneasy" sense of "fraught" is more common in British English than in U.S. English.