fraught
adj.adj. full of problems, danger, or worry. You use this to describe a situation that feels tense or difficult.
adj. filled or teeming with something undesirable; causing or affected by great anxiety or stress. Often used predicatively with the preposition 'with'.
The long journey was fraught with danger.
The atmosphere in the office became fraught as the deadline for the major merger approached.
Navigating the legal complexities of international trade is often fraught with unforeseen bureaucratic hurdles that can delay shipments for months.
From Middle English fraught, fraght, freght (“transport of goods or people (usually by water); charge for such transport; facilities for such transport; cargo or passengers of a ship; ballast of a ship; goods in general; (figurative) burden; charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht (“cargo, freight; charge for transport of goods”), from Proto-Germanic fra-aihtiz, from fra- (intensifying prefix) + Proto-Germanic aihtiz (“acquisition; possessions, property”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)). Doublet of freight. Cognates * Danish fragt * Old English ǣht (“livestock; property; possession; power”) * Old High German frēht (“earnings”) (modern German fracht) * Swedish frakt
The verb is derived from Middle English fraughten, fraghten, freghten (“to hire (a ship, etc.) for transporting goods; to load (a ship, etc.) with cargo or passengers; to store, stow away; (figurative) to provide an ample supply of (goods, income, etc.)”), from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from vracht, vrecht (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs). The adjective is derived from Middle English fraught, fraght (“burdened, loaded”), the past participle of fraughten, fraghten (verb) (see above).
Typically follows a linking verb and is followed by the preposition 'with' when describing a situation full of risks.
a fraught situation of risksa situation fraught with risksWhen describing what a situation is full of, the adjective must be followed by 'with' rather than 'of'.