Quranic root
فرش
f · r · sh
The root centers on spreading, flattening, and preparing something as an extended surface or support.
From spreading and making a surface usable come meanings for bedding, level ground, low-spreading growth, wings extended near the ground, and several figurative or specialized applications. Some lexical branches, such as insects, livestock, and anatomical terms, are conventional extensions or specialized usages.
- Maqāyīs · row 3562
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
فَرَشَ
farasha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To spread or expand something into an extended surface; in the Quran, to spread out the earth.
The supplied Quran occurrence is the perfect Form I verb with the earth as object.
- Lane · entry 33803
Selected Quran examples
Quran 51:48word 2
“We have spread it”
فَرَاشٌ
farāshun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Flying insects, especially moths, that flutter or fall toward a flame; scattered moths are used as the Quranic image.
The Quranic form occurs in the comparison كَالْفَرَاشِ الْمَبْثُوثِ, describing scattered, confused movement.
- Lane · entry 33813
- Mufradāt · row 1102
Selected Quran examples
Quran 101:4word 4
“like moths”
فَرْشٌ
farshun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Small or young livestock, or animals designated for riding or slaughter; the Quranic usage concerns the livestock category called فَرْش.
Classical interpretation varies over whether the term specifically denotes young camels or extends to cattle, sheep, and goats, especially animals fit for slaughter. It may function as a collective or as a singular-looking noun.
- Lane · entry 33809
- Mufradāt · row 1102
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:142word 4
“and (some for) meat”
فِرَاشٌ
firāshun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A spread-out surface or furnishing for resting: a bed, couch, or comparable support; in the Quran, the earth is made a level, usable resting surface and heavenly furnishings are described as couches.
The plural فُرُشٌ is used for couches or beds. In the earth construction, the term emphasizes suitability for settling rather than a literal manufactured bed.
- Lane · entry 33814
- Mufradāt · row 1102
Selected Quran examples
Spouses or wives, by metonymic extension from the bed; this is an alternative interpretation of the Quranic plural فُرُشٌ in the passage about elevated furnishings.
This is an exegetical Quranic interpretation reported for the supplied Quranic form, distinct from the physical bed or couch sense.
- Lane · entry 33814
- Mufradāt · row 1102
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:22فِرَٰشًۭاa resting place
- 6:142وَفَرْشًۭا ۚand (some for) meat
- 51:48فَرَشْنَـٰهَاWe have spread it
- 55:54فُرُشٍۭcouches
- 56:34وَفُرُشٍۢAnd (on) couches
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 74 Classical meanings
فَرَشَهُ
To spread or lay out a bed, carpet, garment, cloth, dust, or other material for someone or beneath someone.
The construction may mean spreading something for another person or laying it out for oneself.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ
To spread or lay the forelegs or forearms flat upon the ground.
Used of a lion, wolf, dog, or other beast of prey, and also of a person; the phrase can describe the posture of placing the forearms on the ground in prostration.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرْشٌ
A desirable slight outward spread or non-erect shape of the hind leg of a camel or horse.
Excessive spreading, in which the hock joints strike together, is distinguished as عَقَلٌ.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ
To disperse or spread abroad young camels.
This usage is explained by the synonym بَثَّ.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَهُ أَمْرَهُ
To make a person's state or affair ample, open, or free from constraint; to lay it fully before someone.
The object may be a state, case, or affair, and the construction is figurative.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ نَفْسَهُ
To lay oneself out in service of others or make oneself available as a sacrifice for them.
The expression is figurative and can describe exceptional kindness or self-subordination.
- Lane · entry 33803
- Lane · entry 33825
فَرَشَهُ
To throw someone down, overcome him, and get upon him.
This is a figurative extension of making someone or something a surface to be trodden upon.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ الْمَكَانَ
To spread or pave a place, including a house, with carpets, baked bricks, broad stones, or similar material.
The house-paving usage is also expressed with the Form II verbal noun تَفْرِيشٌ.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ عَنْهُ
To desire and prepare oneself for a person or matter.
This reported construction is distinct from the ordinary transitive sense of spreading.
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَشَ
To lie or tell falsehoods.
The usage is illustrated by the question كَمْ تَفْرُشُ, “How long will you lie?”
- Lane · entry 33803
فَرَّشَ
For seed-produce to spread itself over the surface of the earth.
This is a Form II intransitive or reflexive-like use concerning shoots or seed growth.
- Lane · entry 33804
فَرَّشَ
For a bird to expand and flap its wings over something without alighting; for a young locust to spread its wings.
The subject is a bird or young locust, and the movement is an extension of the wings rather than settling on the object.
- Lane · entry 33804
أَفْرَشَ
To speak evil of someone or slander him, including in his absence, and figuratively to attack his honour by speech.
The construction أَفْرَشَ فِي عِرْضِهِ specifically takes a person's honour as the object of verbal attack.
- Lane · entry 33805
- Lane · entry 33808
أَفْرَشَ
To make a sword thin, or thin and fine at its edge.
This is a specialized figurative or technical application.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ
For trees to put forth branches.
The usage is given as synonymous with أَغْصَنَ.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ عَنْهُ
To leave, quit, or desist from someone or something.
It may describe a person ceasing an attack or death withdrawing from people.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ
For a mare to desire to be covered.
This is a specialized usage said of a female horse.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَهُ
To give someone young camels.
The young camels may be small or large according to the cited explanation.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ
To become the possessor of young camels.
The construction is reported with some uncertainty about the vocalization or verb form.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ
For a place to abound in moths, butterflies, or the seed-produce associated with them.
This is said of a place and describes the abundance found there, not the insect or plant itself.
- Lane · entry 33805
أَفْرَشَ
To make a lock fast by means of its catch or catches.
The usage occurs in the paired expression “he locked, and made fast by the lock catches.”
- Lane · entry 33805
اِفْتَرَشَ لِسَانَهُ
To speak in whatever manner one wishes.
Literally, the tongue is expanded; the expression is figurative.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَهُ
To tread upon someone or something.
The object is figuratively made into a carpet or bed.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ الطَّرِيقَ
To go or travel along a road.
The road is conceived as a surface spread beneath the traveler.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ
To approach sexually or have sexual intercourse.
The evidence supports the construction but does not require a restriction on the object's gender, status, or number.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ
To take a woman as a wife.
This is a conventional marital extension of the sexual or bed metaphor.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَتْنَا السَّمَاءُ
For the sky to assail or overtake people with rain.
The rain is figuratively spread over or brought down upon the people.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ الْمَالَ
To take property, livestock, or wealth wrongfully or by force.
The object may be مال in the broad sense of property or cattle.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ أَثَرَهُ
To follow someone's footsteps or track him.
The expression is figurative and refers to following a laid-out trace.
- Lane · entry 33808
اِفْتَرَشَ
To become spread or expanded, as a garment or similar thing.
The verb may be used in an active or passive-like construction according to the cited grammatical discussion.
- Lane · entry 33808
فَرْشٌ
What is spread as household furniture, such as carpets, mattresses, and similar furnishings.
Here فَرْشٌ is used as a substantive passive participle as well as an infinitive.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشٌ
Seed-produce after it has spread over the ground.
Some descriptions specify the stage at which the plant has become three- or four-leaved.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشٌ
A place abounding in plants or herbage.
This is a figurative place-name extension from vegetation spread over the ground.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشٌ
A wide, level, soft, unobstructed plain or tract of land, including a depressed wooded tract.
The term can denote open even ground or a particular low tract containing specified trees.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشٌ
A collection or round plot of trees, including certain thorn-tree groves.
This specialized landscape term is distinct from the broader meaning of an open plain.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشٌ
Shrubs or small trees, and small firewood.
The term may refer either to the living growth or to its use as small fuel.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشُ الإِبِلِ
Old camels.
This is a specialized expression distinct from the Quran-attested livestock interpretation.
- Lane · entry 33809
فَرْشَةٌ
A somewhat depressed, extended track in wide, level country, sometimes measuring a day's and night's journey.
The noun is used for a broad desert track rather than ordinary level ground.
- Lane · entry 33810
فِرْشَةٌ
Form, appearance, or garb.
The word is synonymous with هَيْئَةٌ in the cited expression.
- Lane · entry 33811
فَرْشِيٌّ
A seller of household furnishings such as carpets and mattresses.
This is an occupational derivative of فَرْشٌ in the furniture sense.
- Lane · entry 33812
فَرَاشٌ
Young locusts after their wings develop and spread.
This is one Classical identification of فَرَاشٌ in addition to moths and similar flying insects.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
Certain emerging or winged insects, including insects compared with moths and, by one explanation, silkworms.
These are specialized lexical identifications and are not required by the Quranic moth comparison.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
A light-headed, light-witted, unsteady, or contemptible person, by comparison with a moth's flight.
The human description is figurative and evaluative.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشُ الرَّأْسِ
Thin bones, bone fragments, or bony plates of the head, including structures near the bone covering the brain.
The term may include thin pieces that fly off when the head is struck and other thin cranial structures.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشُ الظَّهْرِ
The place where the upper ends of the ribs are joined to the spine of the back.
This is an anatomical expression, not the general insect or bedding noun.
- Lane · entry 33813
الفَرَاشَانِ
The two extremities of the haunches near the relevant depression.
The dual form names a paired anatomical structure.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
The upper portions of the shoulder blades that rise toward the base of the neck and level back.
This is a specialized anatomical plural usage.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
Two colored veins beneath the tongue.
The cited usage is a dual anatomical term.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشُ اللِّجَامِ
The two iron pieces or catches that fasten the cheek straps of a bridle.
The expression belongs to horse tack and harness terminology.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
The edge of a thing.
This is a narrowly reported lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
Mud that has dried on the ground after the water has receded.
The word may also be related to the residue left after flowing water.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
A little water remaining in pools left by torrents.
The clear ground beneath the remnant water may be visible.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشٌ
Small bubbles on the surface of a beverage or water, or a small quantity of sweat.
The usage concerns surface bubbles or a slight film of moisture.
- Lane · entry 33813
فَرَاشُ قُفْلٍ
The catches, teeth, or small pins of a lock that enter corresponding holes and hold it fast.
The term denotes the mechanism of the lock, not the act of fastening it.
- Lane · entry 33813
فِرَاشٌ
A spouse by metonymy: a wife, or in the expression الولد للفراش, the husband or master of the bed who has the relevant marital claim.
This broader Classical usage includes the legal or idiomatic bed metaphor and is distinct from the Quranic exegetical interpretation listed under the public form.
- Lane · entry 33814
- Mufradāt · row 1102
فِرَاشٌ
A bird's nest.
This is a figurative extension from a spread or resting place.
- Lane · entry 33814
فِرَاشٌ
A house or tent.
The usage is an assumed figurative extension from a dwelling or resting place.
- Lane · entry 33814
فِرَاشُ اللِّسَانِ
The innermost place reached by the tongue in the mouth, including the skin covering the bases of the upper teeth.
The exact anatomical location is described with some variation in the cited authorities.
- Lane · entry 33814
فَرِيشٌ
A plant or herbage that spreads over the ground rather than standing on a stem.
The participial form describes low, ground-spreading growth.
- Lane · entry 33815
فَرِيشٌ
A girl or young woman who has been sexually approached or compressed by a man.
This is a specialized participial usage attributed to the Form VIII construction and is reported on limited authority.
- Lane · entry 33815
فَرِيشٌ
An Arabian bull without a hump, or a specified kind of oxen with small humps and flaccid dewlaps.
The zoological descriptions vary among the cited explanations.
- Lane · entry 33815
فَرِيشٌ
A mare or other solid-hoofed animal shortly after giving birth, especially about seven days afterward.
The term marks a period considered suitable for placing a burden on the animal.
- Lane · entry 33815
فَرَاشَةٌ
A small quantity of water, especially water remaining in a vessel or in a clear pool left by a torrent.
The noun may denote the remnant itself or a smooth place where such water collects.
- Lane · entry 33816
فَرَاشَةٌ
Large foundation stones, like millstones, laid first beneath a palm enclosure.
This is a construction term for the base stones of the enclosure.
- Lane · entry 33816
الفَرَاشَتَانِ
Two cartilages near the uvula or the neighboring arches of the soft palate.
The dual form names a paired anatomical structure.
- Lane · entry 33816
فَرَّاشٌ
A person who spreads, arranges, and maintains carpets, beds, mattresses, or similar furnishings.
This occupational noun is reported as probably post-Classical in formation.
- Lane · entry 33817
مِفْرَشٌ
A padded or quilt-like article placed on a saddle or saddle covering for someone to sit upon.
مِفْرَشَةٌ is described as a smaller version used on the camel saddle or its saddle covering.
- Lane · entry 33818
مَفَارِشُ
Women or wives, by extension from furnishings or beds.
The plural occurs in expressions about a man's high-born wives or women.
- Lane · entry 33818
هَالِكُ المِفْرَشِ
A man whose life has passed away wasted because he never married; related expressions describe people destined not to die in their beds.
This meaning belongs to fixed idiomatic expressions, not to the ordinary saddle-pad noun.
- Lane · entry 33818
جَمَلٌ مُفَرَّشٌ
A camel having no hump; the same participial pattern can describe a flat-topped hill.
The camel and hill applications are distinct conventional uses of the participial form.
- Lane · entry 33820
أَكَمَةٌ مُفَرَّشَةٌ
A flat-topped hill or eminence.
The hill is described as spread or flattened at its top.
- Lane · entry 33820
مُفَرِّشٌ
Seed-produce spreading itself over the ground.
This active participle describes the spreading growth of the seed-produce.
- Lane · entry 33821
شَجَّةٌ مُفَرِّشَةٌ
A head wound reaching the thin cranial bones, or cracking the bone without crushing it.
The exact degree of bone injury varies in the cited explanation.
- Lane · entry 33821
مَفْرُوشَةُ الرِّجْلِ
A she-camel whose hind leg has the condition called فَرْشٌ, or a specified bending of that leg.
This is an anatomical or conformation description of a camel's leg.
- Lane · entry 33822
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I Quranic verb is normalized from the inflected QAC lemma فَرَشْ to the dictionary citation form فَرَشَ.
Interpretations of Quranic فَرْشٌ in 6:142 vary between young or small livestock and animals fit for slaughter; the entry preserves the supported range without treating one interpretation as certain.
The spouse interpretation of فُرُشٌ is explicitly reported as an alternative Quranic interpretation; the supplied contextual glosses identify the physical couch sense.
Lane's Quran references use historical citation conventions. The modern verse locations used here are only the independently supplied QAC locations.