n. 1. A defensive barrier of pointed inclined stakes or barbed wire. 2. A ruff for the neck worn in the 1500s. [French, from Middle French, from Old French, mesentery of a calf or lamb eaten as food (a ruff being so called in reference to the pleated folds of the mesentery), from fraiser, fraser, to mash, smash with the palm of the hand (in order to remove the tough outer membrane from a fava bean, the mesentery being called fraise in Old French because of its resemblance to the membrane removed in this way), from Vulgar Latin *frēsāre, to mash, from Latin frēsa, crushed, mashed (as in faba frēsa, mashed fava bean), from feminine of frēsus, past participle of frendere, to crush; see FRENUM.] |
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