fry
/fraɪ/ IELTSAcademic
verb
- 1.
To cook food in hot oil or fat. It can mean cooking on a pan with a little oil or in deep oil.
- Fry the onions until they turn golden.
- She fried the fish for dinner.
- He fried an egg in butter.
- 2.
To become very hot from strong heat or sunlight. People often use this informally.
- We were frying in the sun.
- My laptop is frying on this desk.
- The pavement was frying in the afternoon heat.
noun
A very young fish, or the young of some other animals.
- The pond is full of fry.
- Small fry hide near the weeds.
- These fish fry are hard to see.
Adinary Nuance
Fry is the general word for cooking in hot oil. It is broader than deep-fry, which means cooking fully in lots of oil. It is also different from saute, which usually uses less oil and quick stirring. For heat, fry is informal and strong, while boil or bake do not mean the same thing.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- chiên
- Spanish
- freír
- Chinese
- 油炸
- Japanese
- 揚げる
- Korean
- 튀기다
Etymology
Old English fryġan meant “to roast or cook.” The word has been used in English for cooking since early times, and the animal sense is also old.
Common phrases
fry an eggfry in oildeep-fry foodfish fry
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- Is fry the same as deep-fry?
- Not exactly. Fry is the general word, while deep-fry means cooking fully in hot oil.
- Can fry mean to get very hot?
- Yes. In informal English, it can mean becoming too hot in strong sun or heat.
- Is fry a formal word in academic writing?
- It is common in everyday and cooking language. In academic writing, writers often use more exact cooking terms.