WhatIs

/fräg/

alt. phrog

1. interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have a lot of them).

2. Used as a name for just about anything.
See foo.

3. n. Of things, a crock.

4. n. Of people, somewhere in between a turkey and a toad.

5. froggy: adj. Similar to bagbiting (see bagbiter), but milder.
"This froggy program is taking forever to run!"

/frob'nits/, pl. 'frobnitzem' /frob'nit-zm/ or 'frobni' /frob'ni:/

n. An unspecified physical object, a widget. Also refers to electronic black boxes. This rare form is usually abbreviated to 'frotz', or more commonly to {frob}. Also used are 'frobnule' (/frob'n[y]ool/) and 'frobule' (/frob'yool/). Starting perhaps in 1979, 'frobozz' /fruh-boz'/ (plural: 'frobbotzim' /fruh-bot'zm/) has also become very popular, largely through its exposure as a name via Zork. These can also be applied to nonphysical objects, such as data structures.

/fräb'ni-kayt/

vt. [Poss. derived from frobnitz, and usually abbreviated to frob, but 'frobnicate' is recognized as the official full form.] To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. One frequently frobs bits or other 2-state devices. Thus:

"Please frob the light switch" (that is, flip it), but also "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it". One also sees the construction 'to frob a frob'.

See tweak and twiddle.

/fräb/

1. n. [MIT] The TMRC definition was "FROB = a protruding arm or trunnion"; by metaphoric extension, a frob is any random small thing; an object that you can comfortably hold in one hand; something you can frob.

See frobnitz.

2. vt. Abbreviated form of frobnicate.

/fri-tərwer/

n. An excess of capability that serves no productive end. The canonical example is font-diddling software on the Mac (see macdink); the term describes anything that eats huge amounts of time for quite marginal gains in function but seduces people into using it anyway.

/fri:'ohd/

[TMRC]

n. A reversible (that is, fused or blown) diode.

Compare fried.

/frīd/

adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down by a 'power glitch' (see glitch), drop-outs, a short, or some other electrical event. (Sometimes this literally happens to electronic circuits! In particular, resistors can burn out and transformers can melt down, emitting noxious smoke. However, this term is also used metaphorically.)

Compare frotzed.

/frēz/

v. To lock an evolving software distribution or document against changes so it can be released with some hope of stability. Carries the strong implication that the item in question will 'unfreeze' at some future date.

"OK, fix that bug and we'll freeze for release." ❄️

/frēwer/

n. Free software, often written by enthusiasts and distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, USENET, or other electronic media. At one time, freeware was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of the well-known MS-DOS comm program PC-TALK III. It wasn't enforced after his mysterious disappearance and presumed death in 1984.

See shareware.

/frēdnet/

n. Used to refer to some random and uncommon protocol encountered on a network.

"We're implementing bridging in our router to solve the frednet problem."