Human-verified examples from authoritative sources
Exact Expressions
60 human-written examples
But in these fretful times, no one seems to be fretting much about the country's heavy reliance on foreign funding.
Friends and colleagues would assume I was sulking – fretful about the budget, the traffic or the possibility that David Beckham would end up trotting around a football pitch for one last medley of complaints to the referee, misplaced passes and light tapping of the ankles of agile opponents as they raced by our national icon.
We've all laughed at his steel-cut oats and his obsession with pilates and his fretful concern about developing a vitamin D deficiency, but the man absolutely cuts to the chase: a number of people in professional politics are terrified that the life they love will kill them if they aren't careful.
Mr Clinton himself was fretful , aware that he had been elected by suffering common folk rather than rich investors.
Mr Royama and others are likely to find the coming week a very fretful one indeed.
For fretful parents the new devices may just mean still more grounds for worry.The same technology also enables snooping on adults.
But instead, his government has launched a sweeping crackdown, suggesting it remains paranoid about dissent, and fretful about a possible military coup.At least 20 former members of an elite army commando unit and ten army deserters, all supporters of Mr Fonseka, have been arrested.
Britain's defence establishment is busy in other wars and also fretful that the EU is planning wasteful duplication of things NATO now does (though the foreign secretary, David Miliband, recently said that Europe cannot always wait for NATO or America when military action is needed).
Financial markets, usually respectful of Mr Solbes, were fretful.
"It is very difficult to attract the best and maintain a centre of excellence without this autonomy," says another faculty member, fretful that it could now be compromised.The trouble is that in the conservative mind, the saga of Sciences-Po's mismanagement has undermined its credibility.
Governments in Berlin are always fretful about upcoming state elections.
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Real-world application tested
The word "fretful" functions primarily as an adjective , modifying nouns to describe a state of anxious concern or worry. Ludwig AI confirms this usage with numerous examples where "fretful" describes individuals or groups experiencing unease. For instance, "fretful voters" or "fretful investors".
Expression frequency: Very common
