Meaning
In New England, especially Massachusetts, a frappe is a cold blended drink made with ice cream and milk, often with syrup, coffee, or another flavoring. It corresponds closely to what most of the United States calls a milkshake.
How it is used
Merriam-Webster defines frappé as including a thick milkshake and records the regional /frap/ pronunciation alongside the French-influenced /fra-PAY/ form. WBUR's 2025 food-history reporting explains the New England distinction in greater detail: historically, a local milkshake could be milk and syrup without ice cream, while a frappe contained ice cream and was richer and thicker. That traditional contrast has weakened as national milkshake usage spread, but many Massachusetts menus still preserve frappe for the ice-cream drink. A coffee-shop frappé or blended coffee drink can be a different product and may use the /fra-PAY/ pronunciation, so menu context matters.
Examples
- “I ordered a chocolate frappe with my burger.”
- “Do you want a coffee frappe or a vanilla one?”
- “The ice cream shop makes thick frappes all summer.”
Pronunciation
/fræp/ · frap — rhymes with cap
Tone and register
Neutral, practical, and ordinary in New England food-ordering contexts. The regional interest comes from the name and historical category distinction, not from the drink being treated as novelty slang.
Visitor guidance
Visitors can use frappe naturally at Massachusetts and New England ice-cream shops when they want the thick ice-cream drink. If both milkshake and frappe appear on a traditional menu, ask what the shop means rather than assuming the labels are interchangeable; some businesses still preserve the older distinction. Pronouncing the local drink frap will also avoid confusion with coffee-shop or French-style frappé uses.
Cultural context
Frappe preserves a regional food vocabulary that outlived a national change in what milkshake usually means. WBUR's historical account explains that ice-cream-free milkshakes remained familiar in parts of New England after ice cream became standard in milkshakes elsewhere, leaving frappe as the local name for the richer version. Current Massachusetts reader recommendations and menus show the term remains living food language rather than a museum piece.
Origin
The word comes through French frappé, associated with chilling or icing. Merriam-Webster records frozen-drink senses from the early twentieth century, while WBUR's food-history reporting traces New England use through soda-fountain culture and documents a Boston frozen-coffee use as early as 1868. The exact moment when the modern New England ice-cream sense became fixed is less certain than the broader chilled-drink history.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.
Comparisons featuring this term
Open reviewed place comparisons that explicitly use this canonical term in their editorial comparison set.