frat

noun

US, informal
: fraternity sense 1c
Today's progressive notions of responsible partying and political correctness have hit hard at all eighteen of Dartmouth's frats but especially so at Alpha Delta, which has always had the reputation of being the baddest house on campus.Eric Konigsberg
often used before another noun
frat houses/brothers
(often disparaging) a frat boy [=a member of a fraternity]

Examples of frat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Musk became the richest man in the world and continued his frat-boy-as-businessman strategy. Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, 20 Sep. 2022 The questions come from clueless frat boys, from wistful mothers, from grade school kids trying to understand older brothers and sisters. Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2023 Like, all these influencers do the same damn thing, make the same jokes, the same kind of frat boys. Michael Silverman, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Oct. 2022 In 2017, the university banned fall rush for first-year students after multiple reports of hazing at frat houses and longstanding faculty concerns about the negative effect of pledging rituals on student grades and health. Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2022 Eli Roth's follow-up to his breakthrough feature Cabin Fever (2002) starts off as a satire of some of the ugliest Americans ever to travel abroad, following the exploits of a group of hedonistic frat-boy types partying their way across Europe. Katie Rife, EW.com, 2 Dec. 2022 After seeing Jack Harlow as a drunk frat guy dressed as giant tampon, his musical offerings felt like a revelation. Sarah Grant, Rolling Stone, 30 Oct. 2022 Imagine a frat with no rules and no sense of brotherhood. WSJ, 30 Aug. 2022 The next year, Bankman-Fried invited MacAskill to stay at his coed nerd frat, where everyone slept in the attic to preserve the living area for video and board games. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1895, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of frat was circa 1895

Dictionary Entries Near frat

Cite this Entry

“Frat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frat. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!