âUp the fretâ is used in place of words like stressed, annoyed or anxious. It originated in Melbourne Australia and is a reference to the fret board of a guitar as well as the word fretful. How âup the fretâ (stressed) you are is quantifiable by placing a number between 1-24 after the phrase (fret 1 being almost completely relaxed)
Example 1: Dude... Iâm so up the fret right now. That guy just pissed in my living room.
Example 2: AHHHH!!! I just missed my flight by like 2 minutes! Iâm easily at fret 20!