Careful Words

fretted (adj.)

A fiery soul, which, working out its way,

Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.

A daring pilot in extremity;

Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high

He sought the storms.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 156.

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,

The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 10.

  This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.