Dictionary

frippet en · NOUN

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from flibbertigibbet.

Meanings

1. (archaic, countable, humorous, slang, uncountable) A frivolous or showy young woman.
   • Look at it, Phyllis Maud. There are the light, tripping syllables of ‘Phyllis’ suggesting the bright, sweet, merry creature, and there is the sonorous dignity of Maud which tells the girl will have a soul – she will not be a frippet – I could read [Percy Bysshe] Shelley to her and she would look at me with grand understanding eyes. 1908 May 13, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “To Blanche Jennings, from Lynn Croft, Eastwood, 13 May 1908”, in Harry T. Moore, editor, The Collected Letters of D. H. Lawrence […], volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 11:
   • Annette, your farraginous bavardage, bedizened as it is with sesquipedalianities, mark you as a lexiphanic frippet. 1996 December 12, Kenneth Alexander Finlayson, “ATXF FLAMEWAR II: BLITZKRIEG BOP!!”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026:
   • At one party which was mixed with some very good looking and attractive girls, I noticed Freddy in the middle of four young ladies. As I approached he saw me and said, “I will introduce you.” When he came to the last, and the most attractive, he mentioned her name and added, “I think you will agree that she is a nice bit of frippet.” She then asked me, “Frippet, what is that?” Quick as a flash I responded, “Very good looking and charming.” Then turning to Freddy, I said in English, “You really are a fucking idiot!” 2002, R[alph] W[illiam] F[razer] Sampson with Norman Franks, “Victory in Europe”, in Spitfire Offensive: A Fighter Pilot’s War Memoir, Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire: Wrens Park Publishing, →ISBN, pages 158–159:
   • ‘What about Clara Breese? You told me she was all right.’ ‘Quite a nice bit of frippet. But too young for me. I like a mature woman.’ 1971, Douglas Clark, chapter 6, in Sick to Death, New York, N.Y.: Stein and Day, →ISBN, page 123:
   • Your wife will be pleased to be taken to a lovely hotel and out on the river for breakfast. Your popsy won’t. She’ll take it as her due. Which is a sad reversal of the proper order of things – after all, being taken to a lovely hotel and out on the river for breakfast is really something your wife, who has stuck by you even after that nasty business with Euphragia Wynn-bloody-Begbie a couple of years ago, deserves more than some snake-hipped little frippet who’d be off at the drop of a wallet, don’t you think? 2000 May 14, Michael Bywater, “One man in a boat – but who should he take?”, in The Independent on Sunday, number 536, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, Travel section, page 1, column 4:
   • Get this one, right ... shagged a frippet the other night and then ate some chips, yeah ... huhuhuh!!! 1995 March 3, Ryan Giggs, “frippet”, in alt.dumpster (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026:
   • O’Hara is, of course, a treasure, and she made the indomitable Moira Rose into an absolute legend. I would gladly watch any “Schitt’s Creek” episode again just to dip into O’Hara’s spectacular, peculiar pronunciation and the way Moira would drop arcane words into just about any conversation. Emmy voters have bedeviled us over the years, but they aren’t balatrons or frippets. 2020 August 19, Glenn Whipp, “Emmys 2020 comedy predictions: Expect ‘Schitt’s Creek’ to win big”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2020:
   • Thus from a literary point of view, I’m happy to see movies out front, absorbing the finest energies of the voyeurs and semi‐voyeurs. If X movies and R movies are peeled away, the boys will be back at the bookstall, baying for frippet (see Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary for definition and nifty surprise). 1973 August 5, Wilfrid Sheed, “The Good Word: Dirty Business”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • I need a new frippet asap, cos my old one dumped me. It's kind of a long story, but it all ended with a bottle of vodka and a big fight. 1995 March 10, Jeffrey Antonelli, quoting Tolstoy Petr, “Frippet Wanted”, in alt.romance (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026:

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