What does frilled mean?
'Frilled' is an adjective describing something trimmed or edged with frills — narrow strips of gathered, pleated, or ruffled fabric used as decoration. Most often applied to clothing and household textiles, it appears in phrases like a frilled collar, frilled sleeves, or frilled curtains, where it signals a soft, decorative, sometimes deliberately old-fashioned style reminiscent of Victorian dress. Beyond fashion, the word extends naturally to any object with a ruffled or wavy edge: a frilled flower petal, a frilled mushroom cap, or the dramatic neck frill of Australia's frilled lizard. Connotations vary with context — in interior design or clothing, 'frilled' can suggest charm and delicacy or, less kindly, fussiness and excess ornamentation, while in scientific naming it is purely descriptive. Closely related forms include the noun 'frill' and the looser adjective 'frilly'. For writers, 'frilled' offers a precise way to describe ornamental edging without resorting to vaguer terms like 'decorative'.
Edged, trimmed, or decorated with frills; having a ruffled or ornamented margin.
"He photographed the frilled edges of the antique lace tablecloth."
Most commonly used attributively before a noun; also found predicatively ('the curtains were frilled').
Past tense and past participle of the verb 'frill': to gather, pleat, or ruffle material into a frill, or to provide something with such a trim.
"The seamstress frilled the hem of the dress by hand."
Australia's famous 'frilled lizard' doesn't wear fabric at all — its spectacular neck frill is living skin that flares open like an umbrella when the lizard feels threatened.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of frilled
The adjective 'frilled' derives from the verb and noun 'frill', a word that appeared in English around the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries referring to a ruffled edging on garments. The ultimate origin of 'frill' is uncertain; it has been linked to Old French verbs meaning to ruffle or crumple, but lexicographers generally treat its deeper ancestry as obscure rather than asserting a definite source. Whatever its precise roots, the word settled firmly into the vocabulary of dress and decoration, giving rise to the derivative adjective 'frilly' and to compounds built around the participial form 'frilled'.
Related word forms
How frilled is actually used
'Frilled' functions chiefly as an attributive adjective (a frilled collar, frilled curtains) but also serves as the past tense and participle of the verb 'frill'. Its connotations are largely decorative and often period-flavoured — frilled garments evoke Victorian or historical dress, so the word can carry a quaint, old-fashioned, or even fussy tone in modern usage. In biology, as in 'frilled shark' or 'frilled lizard', the word is neutral and descriptive rather than ornamental.
Easily confused with frilled
Though it rhymes with 'frilled', 'thrilled' means excited or delighted and is entirely unrelated in meaning.
'Frilly' is a broader adjective describing something full of frills or fussy ornamentation, while 'frilled' specifically describes something edged or trimmed with actual frills.