fraught

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɹɔːt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɹɔt/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /fɹɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːt
• Homophone: frot (in accents with the cot-caught merger)

From Middle English fraght, freght, from Middle Dutch vracht or Middle Low German vracht (“freight money”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fra- (intensive prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possession”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to possess”). Cognate with Old High German frēht (“earnings”), Old English ǣht (“owndom”), and a doublet of freight. More at for-, own. Adjective from Middle English, passive participle of the verb fraughten, from Middle Dutch vrachten.

fraught (usually uncountable, plural fraughts)

1. (obsolete) The hire of a ship or boat to transport cargo.
2. (obsolete) Money paid to hire a ship or boat to transport cargo; freight

   fraught money

3. (obsolete) The transportation of goods, especially in a ship or boat.
4. (obsolete) A ship's cargo, lading or freight.
   • c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:

     Well, go,
     And bid the merchants and my men despatch,
     And come ashore, and see the fraught discharg'd.

   • 1596, William Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd (uncertain), Edward III‎, act III, scene iv:

     […] And now behold after my winters toyle,
     My paynefull voyage on the boyſtrous ſea,
     Of warres deuouring gulphes and ſteely rocks,
     I bring my fraught vnto the wiſhed port
     My Summers hope, my trauels ſweet reward […]

5. (Scotland) A load; a burden.
6. (Scotland) Two bucketfuls (of water).

• fraught-free

• freight

From Middle English fraghten, fraughten, freghten, from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from the noun (see above).

fraught (third-person singular simple present fraughts, present participle fraughting, simple past and past participle fraught or fraughted)

1. (transitive, obsolete except in past participle) To load (a ship, cargo etc.).
   • c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:

     The ships are safe thou say'st, and richly fraught?

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To form the cargo of a vessel.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Had I been any god of power, I would
     Have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er
     It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
     The fraughting souls within her.

fraught (comparative more fraught, superlative most fraught)

1. (of a cargo-carrier) Laden.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene viii]:

     a vessel of our country richly fraught

2. (figuratively, with with) Loaded up or charged with; accompanied by; entailing.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     a discourse fraught with all the commending excellences of speech

   • a. 1865, Isaac Taylor, Epidemic Whims:

     enterprises fraught with world-wide benefits

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 22:

     The simplest action was fraught with danger, and could only be accomplished with the aid of talismans and counter-spells[.]

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 236d:

     […] all these matters are fraught with paradox, just as they always have been

3. (with with) Furnished, equipped.
4. Distressed or causing distress, for example through complexity.

   a fraught relationship; a fraught process

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎:

     But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low. With [Oscar] Pistorius, that task is fraught.

   • 2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A royal occasion as heritage projects honoured: Sudbury Hill”, in RAIL, number 972, page 57:

     Installing lift shafts in station buildings which were not originally designed to accommodate them can be a fraught exercise, but a necessary one if the legitimate aspiration of the travelling public for step-free access is to be achieved. At Sudbury Hill, on London Underground's Piccadilly Line extension out to the north-western suburbs, Transport for London has achieved this with aplomb.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “fraught”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024), “fraught”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.