# frounce
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English frouncen, from Old French froncir "to wrinkle, frown", from Frankish *hrunkiju (“a wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).
Akin to Old High German runza "fold, wrinkle, crease" (German Runzel "wrinkle"), Middle Dutch ronse "frown", Old Norse hrukka "wrinkle, crease" (Icelandic hrukka "wrinkle, crease, ruck"). More at ruck$_2$.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fɹaʊns/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -aʊns

### Noun

frounce (plural frounces)
* A canker in the mouth of a hawk.
** c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 64, lines 83–85:The hawke had no lyst To come to his fyst; She loked as she had the frounce; […]
** 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 85:I say that the eyass should have her meat unwashed, until she becomes a brancher—’twere the ready way to give her the frounce, to wash her meat sooner, and so knows every one who knows a gled from a falcon.
* A plait or curl.

#### Translations
### Verb

frounce (third-person singular simple present frounces, present participle frouncing, simple past and past participle frounced)
* (rare, transitive, intransitive) To curl.
** 1879, Harmon Seeley Babcock, "The Peanut Man", in Trifles, Providence Press Company (1879), page 43:
    Beard untrimmed by barber's shears,
    Hair all frouncing 'bout his ears,
** 1887, Julian Corbett, For God and Gold, Macmillan and Co, page 214:As though to give him a warlike note, his clothes were thrown on in a slovenly way, and his moustache frounced out so shock and bristling that it seemed from each hair-end a crackling oath must start with every word he said.
** 1888, Charles M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, volume 1, Cambridge, page 498:Under the day-long beating of the sun their brow is frounced out, […]
** 1983, Carolly Erickson, The First Elizabeth, St. Martin's Griffin, published 1997, →ISBN, page 307:The unruly, shoulder-length hair of the redeemed made a strong contrast to the well-tended coiffures of fashionable men, who "frounced their hair with curling irons" and wore long "love locks" tied with ribbons or silk favors.
** 2012, Carolyn Meyer, The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots, Harcourt, published 2012, →ISBN, page 107:My hairdresser stopped coming. Fortunately, my friend Seton had always enjoyed frouncing my hair, and she readily took up the responsibility, fixing my hair in a different style every day.
* (rare) To crease, wrinkle, to frown.
** 1871, George Mac-Henry, Time and Eternity: A Poem, A L Bancroft and Company (1871), page 42:
    He frounced his brow, and from his scornful eye
    Shot wrath indignant, and disdain and pride,
** 1885 December, “The Old Corner Shop: A Story of Very Poor Humanity”, in The Phrenological Magazine:Mury, however, frounced her brows, and made Sir Tyke Winchap's niece a profound courtesy behind her back.
** 2000, Patrick Madden, "Down on Batlle's Farm", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Volume 33, Number 2, Summer 2000, page 160:
    "But they know who you are?" I asked, and frounced my brow in skeptical doubt.
* To gather into or adorn with plaits, as a dress.

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* unforce

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* ffrownce, fronce, frownce

### Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French fronce, from Old French fronce.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfruːns(ə)/

### Noun

frounce (plural frounces)
* A wrinkle, fold, or pleat (in fabric, hair, or porcelain).
* A disease involving mouth sores in birds of prey.
* (figuratively) A grimace; a scornful look.

#### Derived terms

* frounceles

#### Related terms

* frouncen

#### Descendants

* English: frounce

### References

* “frǒunce, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* “frǒunce, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.