I. ˈfrinj noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English frenge, from Middle French frenge, frange, fringe, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin frimbia, from Latin fimbria
1. : an ornamental border (as for clothing, upholstery, curtains) consisting of short lengths of straight or twisted thread, cord, or leather hanging from cut or raveled edges of garments or from a separate band and often grouped or knotted in various designs
2. : something resembling a fringe : border , edging , margin , periphery
the … people who lived just outside the fringe of the drought area — R.W.Murray
a narrow fringe of continental coast — Encyc. Americana
as
a. : a growth like a fringe (as of hair or bristles)
hair forming a fringe around his bald head — Frances H. Eliot
b. : bang V
c. : a fimbriate border (as that of certain petals) ; specifically : the peristome of a moss
d. : the confused double outline produced by lack of registration between two or more component pictures of a color photograph
e. : one of various light or dark bands produced by the interference or diffraction of light
f. : vague images and feelings attending a definite idea or sometimes present when the idea cannot be recalled
3.
a. : something that is marginal, borderline, or introductory in relation to some activity, process, or subject matter : something that is secondary or supplementary to what is basic or central in importance or value
this is an enormous field of which I can here touch only the fringe — G.G.Coulton
education for an age in which leisure is the center rather than the fringe — John Diebold
b. : a group of persons occupying a marginal, extremist, or markedly deviant position (as economically, socially, politically, or culturally)
an unwashed child from the criminal fringe of town — Frances G. Patton
the fringes of Salem society were superstitious — Van Wyck Brooks
this attack has been well organized by fringe groups — New Republic
that is what they talk about in the fringe sects, not in proper congregations — Time
the fringe types — the pathological and near pathological — John McPartland
— see lunatic fringe
c. : fringe benefit
most unions want higher pensions, health and welfare, other fringes — Kiplinger Washington Letter
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
1. : to furnish or adorn with or as if with a fringe
the cloth over the tea table is fringed with blue elephants — New Yorker
fringe a rug
2. : to serve as a fringe for
grass fringed the stream
intransitive verb
: to spread out like a fringe
in that medieval time the cathedral fringed out into the university — Francis Hackett