Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. insignificant, petty, worthless.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Frigging is also figuratively used for trifling.
1849		Sam Sly 26 May 3/3: [T]hat stupid ass, Bob, alias the Frigging Tailor.

2. a euph. for fucking adj.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 692: Doing that frigging drawing out the thing by the hour question and answer.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 63: Station agent’s so friggin’ tough in this dump.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 201: Ain’t been around since, the friggin cowson.
1958		C. Lee diary 9 Feb. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 51: You’re no friggin’ good to me here.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 111: That frigging bastard Jake Adams ain’t going to like it.
1962		H. Livings Nil Carborundum (1963) Act II: He friggin knows about them friggin eggs I’ll swear.
1972		Nova Apr. 99: Now I suppose you’re going to say ‘napalm’. That frigging magic word.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 157: Keep going. You’re not in the frigging army now.
1984		W. Ammon et al. Working Lives 89: You’ll see! You’ll frigging well see.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 126: I can’t friggin’ believe it.
1986		A. Bleasdale No Surrender 17: Y’ a friggin’ eejit, y’ll spend y’ dyin’ days in Dartmoor, prison ... [Ibid.] 54: Oh friggin’ Jesus.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 6: What do you mean just? The way I’m feeling it might as well be in frigging Africa.
1996		P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle 47: Geez, these fucking turds are incredible, there’s a new gang every frigging week.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 201: [of a racehorse] ‘This thing’s a friggin’ freak. It can sprint like buggery and stay all day and it leaves the friggin’ barrier like a startled ferret’.
1999		Guardian G2 15 Mar. 4 She calls Ronnie Knight’s autobiography [...] ‘a load of friggin’ lies.’.
2004		C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 181: Do I look like frigging Jacques Cousteau?
1989		B. Reed ‘Messman on C.E.’s Altar’ in Passing Strange (2015) 21: Ploughing forward with high attitude of [...] whazfrigginghellsgoing and so forth on.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Assailants’ in Knockemstiff 127: ‘The whole friggin’ neighborhood’s watching us, for Christ’s sakes’.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 41: You can’t watch the damn TV without some friggin’ advert tring to hustle their crap.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘It’s my friggin’ reputation, Swanny. You wait for me there, or —’.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 12: Don’t you do any frigging thing I tell you to.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 145: I didn’t want to have a kid in a friggin’ prison.

3. pertaining to sex; thus frigging book, a pornographic magazine.

1962

P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 95: I just swiped [...] some o’ dem ol’ friggin’ books outta my ol’ man’s dresser.

4. as infix.

1947		R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 236: If you asked where he was born he said, ‘Baton friggin’ Rouge.’ If you asked him what time it was he said, ‘Three friggin’ o’clock.’.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 50: The old-frigging-men’s home, no less.
1977		(con. 1930s) S. McAughtry Sinking of the Kenbane Head 25: ‘Two o’clock,’ Jack would mutter to himself savagely. ‘Two o’frigging clock.’.
1982		A. Bleasdale ‘Moonlighter’ in Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) [TV script] 105: What the friggin’ hell do you think you’re doing?
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 133: ‘Shit a friggin’ brick’.
1996		P. Cornwell Cause of Death (1997) 84: It’s Hand, who probably thinks he’s Jesus friggin’ Christ.
2005		N. Gaiman Anansi Boys 85: ‘Abso-friggin’-lutely,’ agreed Spider.