fray
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: frā
ipa: /fɹeɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: frays
form: fraying
form: frayed
form: frayed
Etymology: The verb is derived from Late Middle English fraien (“to beat so as to cause bruising, to bruise; to crush; to rub; to wear, wear off”), borrowed from Old French fraier, freier, freiier (modern French frayer (“to clear, open up (a path, etc.); (figuratively) to find one’s way through (something); (obsolete) to rub”)), from Latin fricāre, the present active infinitive of fricō (“to chafe; to rub”), an intensive form of friō (“to break into pieces, crumble; to rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”). Sense 1.2 (“to force or make (a path, way, etc.) through”) is derived from modern French frayer: see above.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: S. Paul alſo defineth the law to be the knowlege of ſyn, yͭ is, which accuſeth, frayeth the cõſcience, & maketh ſynnes knowen.
ref: 1538, Erasmus Sarcerius, “Of the Lawe of God”, in Richard Taverner, transl., Cõmon Places of Scripture Ordrely and after a Cõpendious Forme of Teachyng, Set Forth with No Litle Labour, […], London: […] John Byddell, […], →OCLC, folio lxv, recto:
text: [W]ith the help of her consorts, [she] carried off the following goods of her said lady; viz. […] four striped muslin night-rails very little frayed; […]
ref: 1710 November 13 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele], “Thursday, November 2, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 245; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume III, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC, page 309:
text: Everything told of long use and quiet slow decay; the very bell-rope in the porch was frayed into a fringe, and hoary with old age.
ref: 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Seventeenth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 182:
text: It was a little past mid-day when the four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross-Keys, Wood-street, Cheapside, London.
ref: 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 1:
glosses: To rub or wear away (something); to cause (something made of strands twisted or woven together, such as cloth or rope) to unravel through friction; also, to irritate (something) through chafing or rubbing; to chafe.
glosses: To rub or wear away (something); to cause (something made of strands twisted or woven together, such as cloth or rope) to unravel through friction; also, to irritate (something) through chafing or rubbing; to chafe.
Of a deer: to rub (its antlers or head) against a tree, etc., to remove the velvet from antlers or to mark territory; also, to rub its antlers against (a tree, etc.) for that purpose.
glosses: To force or make (a path, way, etc.) through.
examples: text: [T]his ſame Ladie Dryopee, the fayreſt Ladye tho / In all the land of Oechalye. Whom beeing then no mayd / (For why the God of Delos and of Delphos had her frayd) / Andræmon taketh too hys wyfe, and thinkes him well apayd.
ref: 1567, Ovid, “The Ninth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 115, verso:
glosses: To bruise (someone or something); also, to take the virginity of (someone, usually a female person); to deflower.
synonyms: frazzle
glosses: To become unravelled or worn; to unravel.
examples: text: Another distance, I do not know how far, of dry dark heather continually fraying against my knees, is traversed, when in front appears a coombe, overgrown with heather from summit to foot, and I stop suddenly.
ref: 1884, Richard Jefferies, “Wild Exmoor”, in Red Deer, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 29:
synonyms: frazzle
glosses: To rub.
examples: text: His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet,[…]. When his head is growne out to the full bigneſſe, then he rubbeth of that pyll, and that is called fraying of his head.
ref: 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 244:
text: And foresters have busy been, / To track the buck in thicket green; / […] / We can shew the marks he made, / When ’gainst the oak his antlers fray’d; […]
ref: 1820, Walter Scott, “[Miscellaneous Poems.] Hunting Song”, in The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, Esq. […], volume XII, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Company] for Arch[ibald] Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; and John Murray, →OCLC, page 122:
text: Towards the end of July the harbourer begins to look round after the stags and notice their whereabouts. They are then fraying, rubbing the velvet off their new horns against the trees. He observes where the signs of fraying first appear, indicating that a full-grown stag is in the neighbourhood, as the best stags usually fray earliest.
ref: 1884, Richard Jefferies, “Tracking Deer by Slot”, in Red Deer, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 112:
synonyms: frazzle
glosses: To rub.
Of a deer: to rub its antlers against a tree, etc., to remove the velvet or to mark territory.
examples: text: The hectic day ended in her nerves frayed.
synonyms: frazzle
glosses: Of a person's mental strength, nerves, temper, etc.: to become exhausted or worn out.
Derived terms: word: antifray
word: frayable
word: frayed
word: fraying
word: frayproof
word: nonfraying
word: unfrayed
Related terms: affricate
dentifrice
fricative
friction