FRAY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Fray

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/freɪ/ Listen

noun

fray n. An angry quarrel; an affray; contest; combat; broil. "Who began this bloody fray?"

Fray n. A fret or chafe, as in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.

verb

Fray v. t. (past & past part. frayed; pres. part. fraying) To frighten; to terrify; to alarm. "What frays ye, that were wont to comfort me affrayed?"

Fray v. t. To bear the expense of; to defray. (Obs.) "The charge of my most curious and costly ingredients frayed, I shall acknowledge myself amply satisfied."

Fray v. t. To rub; to wear off, or wear into shreds, by rubbing; to fret, as cloth; as, a deer is said to fray her head.

Fray v. i.

To rub. "We can show the marks he made When 'gainst the oak his antlers frayed."

To wear out or into shreads, or to suffer injury by rubbing, as when the threads of the warp or of the woof wear off so that the cross threads are loose; to ravel; as, the cloth frays badly. "A suit of frayed magnificience."

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Etymology of 'Fray'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fray" Quotes from Famous Books

... war reached us in our western elysium, and I turned my face homeward, as did many another son of Virginia. My brother was sensible enough to remain behind on the new farm; but with nothing to restrain me I soon found myself in St. Louis. There I met kindred spirits, eager for the coming fray, and before attaining my majority I was bearing arms and wearing the gray of the Confederacy. My regiment saw very little service during the first year of the war, as it was stationed in the western division, but early in 1862 it was engaged in ...

— Reed Anthony, Cowman • Andy Adams

... general melee the swords gritted and twined and seemed like flashing serpents in deadly fray, while those who grasped them came in contact with and were hindered by the furniture of the by ...

— The King's Esquires - The Jewel of France • George Manville Fenn

... for the hills with the yelling undergarmented in pursuit. A Filipino girl who saw it all described the affair to me, and said, "Abao," as she recalled the shouts of enjoyment with which the Americans returned after the fray. They seemed to regard the episode as planned to relieve the monotony of life in quarters and to give them a hearty ...

— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... until their appearance, run the risk of interfering between them. Wilson's servant, who had come for the priest, was still standing beside me, looking on; and, while my brother and Mr. Molloy were separating the parties, I asked him how the fray commenced. ...

— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... track, and getting it again started on its way toward New York. At the sight of Rod, who was of course a perfect stranger to them, sitting on the floor, hatless, covered with dust, his clothing bearing many signs of the recent fray, and ruefully feeling of a lump on his forehead that was rapidly increasing in size, and of Smiler whose head was bloody, and who was still worrying the last fragment of clothing that the tramp's rags had yielded him, they stood for a moment in ...

— Cab and Caboose - The Story of a Railroad Boy • Kirk Munroe

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