fry

The word “fry” means to cook food in hot oil or fat. In plain terms, to cook in hot fat or oil, or (slang) to burn out electronics; as a noun, a fried potato strip or a baby fish.

“Fry” is pronounced freye (/fɹaɪ/ in IPA).

Here is “fry” used in a sentence: “The pond was full of tiny fish fry in early summer.”

Depending on how it is used, “fry” can be a verb and a noun.

The word “fry” comes from Latin. From Old French frire, from Latin frīgō, "to roast or fry.".

“Fry” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Fry” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: to cook food in hot oil or fat.

Both fry and sauté cook food in hot fat, but frying generally uses more oil and steadier heat to build a crisp exterior. Sautéing uses only a small amount of fat over high heat with frequent tossing, and is typically quicker and better suited to smaller pieces of food.

To fry can mean cooking food in any amount of hot oil or fat, often in a shallow pan so only one side cooks at a time. Deep-frying specifically means fully submerging the food in hot oil so it cooks on all sides at once.

In American English, "fries" are thin strips of fried potato, while British English usually calls that same food "chips." Confusingly, the thin bagged snack that Americans call "chips" is known as "crisps" in British English.

In informal usage, to fry electronics means to damage or destroy them through excessive heat or electric current, as in "the power surge fried the motherboard." The image comes from cooking, where intense heat transforms or ruins whatever is exposed to it.