french fries

• French fries

Clipping of earlier French fried potatoes (1856) and French-fried potatoes, potatoes supposedly prepared in the French style.[1]

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french fries pl (normally plural, singular french fry)

1. (chiefly Canada, US) Strips of deep-fried potatoes that have been frenched (cut into strips). [from 1903]

   French fries are our specialty.

   • 1903, Lillian Pettengill, Toilers of the Home, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 292:

     “What's the matter?” she asked quickly. “Haven't we had all the things before? Soup, chops, peas, French fries, and the fruit pudding–there wasn't a thing new.”

   • 1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:

     His first official act was to order dinner. “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.

In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, deep-fried potato strips are generally and traditionally called chips. However, with exposure to the "french fries" on the menus of US-origin fast food outlets, the term "french fries" (or just "fries") has for many people come to mean, specifically, "chips" of the type usually served in those outlets, which are generally thinner, and also possibly crispier, than the traditional British "chip".

• fries (North America); freedom fries (US, dated); French-fried potatoes (North America, dated)

• julienne fries; crinkle-cut fries; home fries, cottage fries; potato wedges, wedges