Frown

How to spell frown

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce frown

What does frown mean?

1. verbTo draw the eyebrows together and wrinkle the forehead to show displeasure, worry, or deep thought.
2. nounA facial expression formed by drawing the brows together, indicating displeasure, concentration, or worry.

Frown in a sentence

• verb

  She began to frown as she read the unexpected bill.

• noun

  A deep frown settled on his face as the meeting dragged on.

• verb

  The manager tends to frown whenever the figures fall short.

• noun

  Her frown told the whole team the news was not good.

Where does frown come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French verb froignier, meaning 'to scowl' or 'to wrinkle the nose in disdain'. That verb was built on froigne, a noun meaning 'a surly or sullen expression', which is thought to come from a Gaulish word frogna meaning 'nostril'. The original idea, then, was literally the wrinkling of the nose that comes with disgust or displeasure, an expression that gradually settled into the modern sense of drawing the brows together in worry or disapproval. English kept the simple spelling without the troublesome French consonant cluster, so the trap today is mostly the 'ow' versus 'ou' question: it ends like 'crown' and 'down', not like 'noun'. The word has also long been used in the figurative phrase 'to frown on' something, meaning to regard it with disapproval, which dates back several centuries.

How the word is built

• frown (single root from Old French froignier: to scowl or wrinkle the nose)