Words - skip - Brewer’s

Fry

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Children (a word of contempt). Get away, you young fry. It means properly a crowd of young fishes, and its application to children should be limited to those that obstruct your path, crowd about you, or stand in your way. (French, frai, spawn.)

Nothing to fry with (French). Nothing to eat; nothing to live on. (See Wide-nostrils.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.