friz

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: Cf. F. friser to curl, crisp, frizzle, to raise the nap (on certain stuffs); prob.akin to OFries. frisle hair of the head. Cf. Frieze kind of cloth.

1. To curl or form into small curls, as hair, with a crisping pin; to crisp.

With her hair frizzed short up to her ears.— Pepys.

2. To form into little burs, prominences, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth.

3. Leather Manufacture To soften and make of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument.

Frizzing machine. (a) Fabrics A machine for frizzing the surface of cloth. (b) Wood Working A bench with a revolving cutter head slightly protruding above its surface, for dressing boards.

That which is frizzed; anything crisped or curled, as a wig; a frizzle. [Written also frizz.]

He [Dr. Johnson], who saw in his glass how his wig became his face and head, might easily infer that a similar fullbottomed, well-curled friz of words would be no less becoming to his thoughts.— Agustus Wm., and Hare, Julius Charles Hare

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54