frieze

Meanings

Noun

• A kind of coarse woolen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side.
• That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.
• Any sculptured or richly ornamented band in a building or, by extension, in rich pieces of furniture.
• A banner with a series of pictures.

Verb

• To make a nap on (cloth); to friz.
• To put a frieze on.

Origin

• Late Middle English, from French and Middle French frise, probably from Medieval Latin Frisia ("Frisian (wool)") due to import via Northern ships. Or, from French friser..
• , the demonym Frisian and terms related to the textile term above in a transferred sense.