fray
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: frā
ipa: /fɹeɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: frays
form: fraying
form: frayed
form: frayed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: fray
form: fray
form: frayed
form: fray
form: frayest
form: frayed
form: frayedst
form: frays
form: frayeth
form: frayed
form: fray
form: frayed
form: fray
form: frayed
form: fray
form: -
form: fraying
form: frayed
Etymology: From Late Middle English fraien (“to attack, invade; to make an attack; to brawl, fight; to make a loud noise (?); to frighten, terrify; to be frightened of (something), fear”), an aphetic variant of affraien (“to attack, invade; to harass; to brawl, fight; to riot; to reproach; to frighten, terrify; to be frightened of (something), fear; to alarm, disturb; to arouse, awaken, excite”) (whence affray), from Anglo-Norman affraier, afrayer (“to frighten, terrify; to disquiet; to disturb”) [and other forms], a variant of effreier, esfreier [and other forms], and Old French effreer, esfreer (“to frighten, scare; to be afraid”) [and other forms] (modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfridāre, from Latin ex- (prefix indicating privation) + Frankish *friþu (“peace”) (from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace, tranquility; refuge, sanctuary”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preyH- (“to love; to please”)).
Senses: examples: text: VVhy Dame (quoth he) vvhat hath ye thus diſmayd? / VVhat frayes ye, that vvere vvont to comfort me affrayd?
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52, page 18:
text: But ſoone as they approcht vvith deadly threat, / The Palmer ouer them his ſtaffe vpheld, / […] Inſtead of fraying, they them ſelues did feare, / And trembled, as them paſſing they beheld: / Such vvondrous povvre did in that ſtaffe appeare, / All monſters to ſubdevv to him, that did it beare.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 40, page 373:
text: When every least commander’s will, best soldiers had obey’d, / And both the hosts were rang’d for fight, the Trojans would have fray’d / The Greeks with noises; crying out, in coming rudely on / At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion / Of brutish clangour all the air; […]
ref: [1611?], Homer, “Book III”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, page 80:
text: [M]y warnings fray / No one, and no one they convert, / And no one helps me to assert / How hard it is to really be / A Christian, and in vacancy / I pour this story!
ref: 1850, Robert Browning, “Easter-Day. Stanza XIII.”, in Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day. A Poem, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 102:
synonyms: word: affray
word: effray
qualifier: except poetic
glosses: To alarm or frighten (someone or something).
examples: text: VVhat, are the turtles fraid out of their neaſts?
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act V, scene ii:
text: And the carkeiſes of this people ſhall be meate for the fowles of the heauen, and for the beaſts of the earth, and none ſhall fray them away.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 7:33, column 1:
text: It [the basilisk] frayeth avvay other Serpents vvith the hiſſing.
ref: 1626, [Samuel] Purchas, “Relations of the Regions and Religions in Africa. […]”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 5th part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 6th book, § III (Of Crocodiles, Serpents, and Other Strange Creatures), page 624:
text: Beſides, all the vvit and Philoſophy in the vvorld can never demonſtrate, that the killing and ſlaughtering of a Beaſt is any more then the ſtriking of a Buſh vvhere a birds Neſt is, vvhere you fray avvay the Bird, and then ſeize upon the empty Neſt.
ref: 1653, Henry More, “The Usefullnesse of Animalls an Argument of Divine Providence”, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC, book II, page 77:
text: Whoso casteth a stone at the birds frayeth them away; and he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship.
ref: 1711 May 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, May 18, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 68; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 415:
text: Hovv fares it vvith him in the court of conſcience? […] Can he fray off the vultur from his breaſt, that night and day is gnavving his heart, and vvounding it vvith ghaſtly and amazing reflexions?
ref: a. 1717 (date written), Robert South, “Sermon VII. Romans xii. 18.”, in Five Additional Volumes of Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume X, London: […] Charles Bathurst, […], published 1744, →OCLC, page 232:
text: A murrain on thy voice! it is enough to fray every hawk from the perch.
ref: 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume II (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 187:
text: [T]he many checks and reverses which belong to the common course of human life fray it away from present scenes, and either send it back in pensive recollections of past pleasures, or forwards in anticipation of a bright futurity.
ref: 1829, [Isaac Taylor], “Section I. Enthusiasm, Secular and Religious.”, in Natural History of Enthusiasm, London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 4:
text: [T]he footpath to Hendon went across hay and corn fields and in summer the sound of rattles used by boys hired to "fray" the birds from the crops was familiar.
ref: 1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 107:
synonyms: word: affray
glosses: Often followed by away, off, or out: to frighten or scare (someone or something) away.
glosses: To assail or attack (someone or something); to drive (someone or something) away by attacking.
examples: text: And this is it, that frayeth men from Chriſt, becauſe they are loath to vunder go his burthen and yoke, to caſt of the world, & leuing thẽſeluen behind thẽ to follow Chriſt.
ref: 1583, Bartimeus Andreas [i.e., Bartimaeus Andrewes], “Canticles. 6.”, in Certaine Verie Worthie, Godly and Profitable Sermons, upon the Fifth Chapiter of the Songs of Solomon: […], London: […] Robert Waldegraue, for Thomas Man, →OCLC, page 35:
text: Svveet Phoſpher bring the day, / Thy light vvill fray / Theſe horrid Miſts; […]
ref: 1635, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Canto XIV. Psal[m] XIII. III.”, in Emblemes, London: […] G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at at Iohn Marriots shope […], →OCLC, book I, stanza 2, page 57:
glosses: To chase (someone or something) away; to disperse.
glosses: To be afraid or frightened; to fear.
examples: text: Then next is the Clinke, a Goale or Priſon for the Treſpaſſers in thoſe parts, namely, in old time for ſuch as ſhould brabble, fray, or break the peace on the ſaid Bank, or in the Brothel Houſes; […]
ref: 1657, Jam. Howel [i.e., James Howell], “Of the Twenty Sixth, or the Last Ward of the City of London, Called the Bridge-ward Without, Containing the Bourough of Southwark”, in Londinopolis; an Historicall Discourse or Perlustration of the City of London, the Imperial Chamber, and Chief Emporium of Great Britain: […], London: […] J[ohn] Streater, for Henry Twiford, George Sawbridge, Thomas Dring, and John Place, […], →OCLC, page 337:
glosses: To make an assault or attack; also, to create a disturbance; to brawl, to fight.
Derived terms: word: fraying