friemeln
German, verb/ˈfriːməln/
friemeln is spelled F-R-I-E-M-E-L-N (8 letters) and appears about once in every 85 million words in written German, the 579,518th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Friemeln is a German verb meaning “to fiddle; to move something in one's hands, especially by rubbing it between thumb and forefinger” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “sich konzentriert mit kleinen Bewegungen, mit Fingerspitzengefühl, an etwas zu schaffen machen”.
What does friemeln mean in English?
verb
- 1
to fiddle; to move something in one's hands, especially by rubbing it between thumb and forefinger
Er friemelte nervös an seinem Ohrläppchen.
- 2
to do delicate manual tasks, such as inserting a thread through the eye of a needle or undoing a tangle, implying either laboriousness of the task or clumsiness of them who do it
Ich musste ganz schön friemeln, um das auseinanderzukriegen.
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. sich konzentriert mit kleinen Bewegungen, mit Fingerspitzengefühl, an etwas zu schaffen machen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of friemeln
- friemelt present singular third-person
- friemelte past
- gefriemelt participle past
- haben auxiliary
- friemelnd participle present
- friemle first-person indicative present
- friemele first-person indicative present
- friemel first-person indicative present
- friemelst indicative present second-person
- friemelest second-person singular subjunctive
- friemlest second-person singular subjunctive
- friemelet plural second-person subjunctive
- friemlet plural second-person subjunctive
- friemelten first-person indicative plural
- friemeltest indicative preterite second-person
- friemeltet indicative plural preterite
- pfriemeln variant
- friemel! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce friemeln?
- /ˈfriːməln/
- [ˈfʁiːml̩n]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is friemeln in German?
friemeln appears about once in every 85 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).