Synonyms for fritter

Most common

shoot · fool · fool away · trifle · waste time

All synonyms

Verb

Noun

Definitions

1. v. 1

   To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination.

   I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.

2. n. 1

   Synonym of pancake, a portion of batter fried on a pan.

Related words

Phrases

fritter away

Forms

Plural

fritters → donuts, scallops, borns, spunks…

Past participle

frittered
e.g. frittered → wasted, dissipated, trifled, fooled…

Example sentences

• shoot It is difficult to shoot a bird flying in the air.
• fool They made a fool of him in the presence of ladies.
• trifle He said he wanted to put an end to such a trifle.

Popularity over time

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters

born¹, fool¹

5 letters

waste¹, shoot¹, donut², spunk¹

6 letters

trifle²

7 letters

scallop²

9 letters

dissipate³

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (donut² = 2 syllables).