Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Fray   /freɪ/   Listen
Fray

noun
1.
A noisy fight.  Synonyms: affray, disturbance, ruffle.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Fray" Quotes from Famous Books



... himself gradually hemmed in by the allies, until at Leipzig he turned at bay. There, on 16-19 October, was fought the great three-day "Battle of the Nations." Against the 300,000 troops of the allies, Napoleon could use only 170,000, and of these the Saxon contingent deserted in the heat of the fray. It was by military prowess that the French Empire had been reared; its doom was sealed by the battle of Leipzig. Napoleon sacrificed on that field another 40,000 lives, besides 30,000 prisoners and a large quantity of artillery and supplies. A fortnight later, with ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes

... brought the blood to my brow. He told also how that it was I who, taking the risk of his wrath, had ordered the guard of twenty men to follow us unseen, had disguised two seasoned soldiers as chariot runners, and had thought to send back the driver to summon help at the commencement of the fray; how I had been hurt also, and was but lately recovered. When ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard

... the search had always been the detailed account left by Fray Pedro Simon, who for twenty years lived among these tribes as missionary, preceding Valverde, known as the Priest of ...
— The Web of the Golden Spider • Frederick Orin Bartlett

... so wholly new, so subtly executed, that it had won success almost before the General had realised the weight of the disaster that had come upon him. He had believed himself at first to be involved in a mere fray with border thieves. But before he reached the fort upon which he found himself obliged to fall back, he knew that he had to cope with a general rising of the tribes, and that the means at his disposal were as inadequate ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell

... as he struck me savagely in the face; and when the pain only made me hang on all the more tightly he called out to his companion, who had taken no farther part in the fray: ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... looking on with blank amazement, "MAKINS evidently thinks that JONAH swallowed the whale." Bill seemed to shatter friendships and dissever old alliances. SQUIRE of MALWOOD naturally at home in the fray, but rather startling to find HOME SECRETARY running amuck at CHAMBERLAIN. MATTHEWS in his most hoity-toity mood; quivered with indignation; thumped the table; shook a forensic forefinger at the undesignedly offending JOSEPH, and, generally, went on the rampage. As for HENEAGE, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, June 20, 1891 • Various

... was the monk of the shaven crown Would seek for another fray, So out of the wood across the wold ...
— The Serpent Knight - and other ballads - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise

... walls, the streets, the relics, the families, the very Flora, and Fauna of our cherished Stadacona—commenced his erudite and amusing sketches of the day, taken from the stand point of the enemy's headquarters, and the fray in the Sault-au-Matelot. Interspersing in his own well digested statement of events, he chose the best authenticated accounts from contemporaneous participants, British, French Canadian and American, proving that the record as presented ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... a turn at the sovereignty, and seized possession of Cashel which since its capture by Brian Boroimhe had been the exclusive appanage of the Dalcassians. Another O'Lochlin, of the house of O'Neill, then appears prominently in the fray, and by 1156, seems to have succeeded in seizing the over-lordship of the island, and so the tale goes on—a wearisome one, unrelieved by even a transitory gleam of order or prosperity. At last it becomes almost a relief when we reach the name of Roderick O'Connor, and ...
— The Story Of Ireland • Emily Lawless

... was now completely over and done with, and would never be heard of again. Or such at least, he added, was the earnest hope of the law-abiding community. This irritated Purdy, who was spumy with the self-importance of one who has stood in the thick of the fray. He answered hotly, and ended by rapping out with a contemptuous click of the tongue: "Upon my word, Dick, you look at the whole thing like the tradesman ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... the mere without leading others to her hiding place. And at last I laughed to myself, the thing was so simple. I had but to go into the mere woods at twilight or in the dusk, and wander about until she heard and feared my coming. Then she would play the White Lady's part on me to fray me away, and all was done. She could not tell who I was, nor would she think it likely that I would seek her there, and would easily forgive me for doing so, ...
— King Olaf's Kinsman - A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in - the Days of Ironside and Cnut • Charles Whistler

... dispositions. Even Master Joseph was quelled by that mild voice which would have become Augustus. It appeared to be quite true that a boy was dead. It was the little boy who, sent to get a loaf for his mother, had complained before the shop was opened of his fainting energies. He had fallen in the fray, and it was thought, to use the phrase of the comely dame who tried to rescue him, "that he was ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... the autumn of our life, This the evening of our day; Weary we of battle strife, Weary we of mortal fray. But our year is not so spent, And our days are not so faded, But that we with one consent, Were our loved land invaded, Still would face a foreign foe, As in days of long ago, Still would face a foreign ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

... not been behind, I had never known what was the meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripple had all the particulars. For he being behind us, as I have already observed, when he came up to the first fellow who began the fray, he found him beginning to come to himself. So he gets off, and pretends to help him, and sets him up upon his breech, and being a very merry fellow, talked to him: "Well, and what's the matter now?" says he to him. "Ah, wae's me," says the fellow, "I is killed." "Not quite, mon," says the cripple. ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe

... to the Pacific,—straining Moguls dragging a furlong of "Lidgerwood flats," swaying "Oliver dumps" with their side chains clanking, a succession as incessant of "empties" grinding back again into the midst of the fray. On the tail of every train lounged an American conductor, dressed more like a miner, though his "front" and "hind" negro brakemen were as apt to be in silk ties and patent-leathers. To say nothing of the train-loads that go Atlanticward and to jungle "dumps" and ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck

... thy heroes of today, Thy sturdy warriors and thy gallant knights, Who charge into the thickest of the fray, And die for country and their free-born rights,— For orphans, widows and their little mites. Thus, Attucks brave, without a moment's pause, (While reeled the Nation in her darkest plights) Full bared his breast ...
— The Sylvan Cabin - A Centenary Ode on the Birth of Lincoln and Other Verse • Edward Smyth Jones

... place than a scattering fire by the men is opened upon friends and foes alike. Dilger's battery trains some of its guns down the road. The reserve artillery is already in position at the north of this line, and uses spherical case with rapidity. Howard and his staff are in the thickest of the fray, endeavoring to stem the tide. As well oppose resistance ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge

... beneficial achievements of the missionaries among the Indians; and deprecates the recent attempts to restrict their authority. Mas approves Comyn's views, and proceeds to defend the friars against the various charges which have been brought against them. In support of his own opinions, he also cites Fray Manuel del Rio; and he himself praises the public spirit, disinterestedness, and devotion to the interests of the Indians, displayed by the curas, many of whom are friars. He argues that they even show too much patience and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various

... nimbly on to the roof, followed by Hamish and Tricksy. The wind was freshening, and sang in their ears, making them feel excited and eager for the fray. ...
— The Adventure League • Hilda T. Skae

... populous, unnumbered as the sands Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil, Levied to side with warring winds, and poise Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter, Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton

... smoking from her deadly wound, "From her gall'd neck did twitch the chain away, "Seeing her lawful sons fall all around, "(Mighty they fell, 'twas Honour led the fray,) "Then in a dale, by eve's dark surcoat gray, "Two lonely shepherds did abruptly fly, "(The rustling leaf does their white hearts affray,) "And with the owlet trembled and did cry: "First Robert Neatherd his sore bosom struck, ...
— Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782) • Edmond Malone

... "you and I will be joint leaders, if you say so. We've now nearly two score stout fellows ready for any fray, and since you've twice held back Tandakora, De Courcelles and their scalp hunters, our united bands should be able to do it a third time. I agree with you that the best way to save the train is to fight rear guard actions, and never let ...
— The Rulers of the Lakes - A Story of George and Champlain • Joseph A. Altsheler

... against Caesars host, he offereth submission to Caesar, the Britains become his tributaries, he returneth into Gallia with the remnant of his armie: the differing report of Caesars commentaries and our historiographers touching these warlike affaires; of a sore fray with bloudshed and manslaughter vpon a light occasion; Caesar taketh opportunitie to get the conquest of the land by the division betweene Cassibellane and Androgeus, the time of the Britains subiection ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (3 of 8) • Raphael Holinshed

... patriotism, stood ready to minister to the wounds of their countrymen in their fine residence near the scene of the battle of R——, May 12, 1863, between a portion of Grant's army and some Confederates. During the fray a gallant and noble young friend of the narrator staggered and fell to the earth; at the same time a piercing cry was heard in the house near by. Examination of the wounded soldier showed that a bullet had passed through the scrotum ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... happened that the animal on which he had laid his money fell down dead. All efforts to restore animation proved unavailing till the false king, with the instinct of a true sportsman, transferred his own soul to the body of the deceased ram, and thus renewed the fray. The real king in the body of the ape saw his chance, and with great presence of mind darted back into his own body, which the vizier had rashly vacated. So he came to his own again, and the usurper ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... the late public-houses turned their lamps out, and when the potmen thrust the last brawling drunkards into the street; but stray vehicles and stray people were left us, after that. If we were very lucky, a policeman's rattle sprang and a fray turned up; but, in general, surprisingly little of this diversion was provided. Except in the Haymarket, which is the worst kept part of London, and about Kent-street in the Borough, and along a portion of the line of the Old Kent-road, the peace was seldom violently broken. ...
— The Uncommercial Traveller • Charles Dickens

... sought to soothe the fury and stroke down the angry bristles of John Dennis. To call the author of the "Campaign" a coward were going too far; but he felt, we believe, more of a martial glow while writing it in his Haymarket garret than had he mingled in the fray. And as to his secretiveness, his still, deep, scarce-rippling stream of humour, his habit, commemorated by Swift, when he found any man invincibly wrong, of flattering his opinions by acquiescence, ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville

... would be in danger of death were not their big fighting comrades on guard. The soldiers rush to the rescue and, with a few sweeps of their scythe-like jaws, clear the field. While the attacking party is carrying off its dead, the builders, unconscious of the fray, ...
— The New McGuffey Fourth Reader • William H. McGuffey

... want you to execute, and to which you will give all your attention, is difficult and troublesome, and requires ingenuity. Mark Forrester was killed last night, as is supposed, in a fray with a youth named Colleton, like himself a Carolinian. If such is not the opinion yet, I am determined such shall be the opinion; and have made arrangements by which the object will be attained. Of course the murderer should be taken, and I have reasons ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... of this—hardly so much—was more than enough for Manvers, who, when he could believe his eyes, pricked headlong into the fray, and began to lay about him with his crop. "Dogs, sons of dogs, down with your hands!" he cried, in Spanish which was fluent, if imaginative. But his science with the whip was beyond dispute, and the diversion, ...
— The Spanish Jade • Maurice Hewlett

... protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge - or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls • Laura Lee Hope

... France from this coronation at Milan, and repaired to the vast camp at Boulogne, where an army comprising a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and ninety thousand cavalry, eager for the fray, were waiting for the word of Napoleon which was to call them forth to new struggles and ...
— LOUISA OF PRUSSIA AND HER TIMES • Louise Muhlbach

... on the tented field, With his shining sword and his burnished shield, Goes not alone with his faithful brand:— Friends and comrades around him stand, The trumpets sound and the war-steeds neigh To join in the shock of the coming fray; And he flies to the onset, he charges the foe, Where the bayonets gleam and the red tides flow, And he bears his part in that conflict dire With an arm all nerve and a heart all fire. What though he fall? At the battle's ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 5 November 1848 • Various

... have seemed perilous to our forefathers: nevertheless it is easy to be wise after the event, and to regret that a bolder course was not taken at the outset. If Butler and Paley had fought as men eager for the fray, as men who smelt the battle from afar, it is impossible to believe that infidelity could have lasted as long as it has. What can be done now could have been done just as effectively then, and though we cannot be surprised ...
— The Fair Haven • Samuel Butler

... rush'd the stripling in battle array, And both sides determined to fight and to maul: Death rattled his jawbones to see such a fray, And glory personified laugh'd at them all. Here he fail'd,—hence he fled, with a few for his sake, And leap'd into a cockle-shell floating hard by; It sail'd to an isle in the midst of the lake, Where they mock'd fallen greatness, and left him ...
— May Day With The Muses • Robert Bloomfield

... known to theologians and ecclesiastics generally his thoughts about indulgences, his own principles, his own opinions and doubts, to excite public discussion on the subject, and to awake and maintain the fray. This he did by the ninety-five Latin theses or propositions which he posted on the doors of the Castle Church at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints' Day and of the anniversary of the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... silence they strained and fought together, and in a second or two it came to Noel through the silence that he had met his match. The Irish blood in him leaped exultant to the fray. He laughed a breathless laugh, and braced his muscles to a fierce resistance. He had been spoiling for a fight with this ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell

... Robert Morton for widely contrasting reasons. The New York financier found in him a youth after his own heart,—a fine student and hard worker, who had fought his way to an education because necessity confronted him with the choice of going armed or unarmed into life's fray. Although comfortably off, Mr. Morton senior was a man of limited income whose children had been forced to battle for what they had wrested from fortune. Success had not come easily to any of them, ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... ocean flying before the wind; And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire, Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire;— But, lo! he is nearing his heart's desire! He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, With Sheridan only five ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... offended with me for remaining a mere spectator of the fray; but I told him very coolly that, being the aggressor, he was in the wrong, and in the second place I was not going to expose myself to be beaten to a jelly by two lusty ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... carrier, running down the terrified aliens, and swinging a sword with one hand while he guided with the other. The commander went in with that first charge, aiming his own carrier toward the center of the fray. He had some raw, untrained men with him, and he believed in teaching ...
— Despoilers of the Golden Empire • Gordon Randall Garrett

... private secretary. Having in this confidential station obtained a knowledge of Philip's plans, he went to the English, by whom he had been educated, and probably disclosed his master's secrets. Philip secured his death, and of all who fell in fight or fray, or on the gallows swung, none deserved death before Sassamon. The comprehensive mind of Philip saw at once the terrible nature and probable consequences of the war thus brought upon him. It is said that he wept, and that from that time forth he never ...
— Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1 • George Boutwell

... a ticklish position for a lad of his years, to find himself suddenly in command of a score of fighting men, one and all excited and ready for the fray, as, schooled by drill and discipline, they formed themselves into a machine which he was to set in motion; but how, when, ...
— In the King's Name - The Cruise of the "Kestrel" • George Manville Fenn

... sank as he measured the odds against him. What was his dismay when he saw, half a mile off, another body following up. And these were white men! Was Diggle bringing the French of Chandernagore into the fray? ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang

... this proposition Offspring of pride and superstition That brothers by a second birth, Should make a very hell of earth. The war of words waxed loud and long, Each side was right, the other wrong; The speakers eager for the fray, Wished their ten minutes half a day; But time and tide will wait for none, So glibly did the gabble run, That nine o'clock soon spoiled the fun, And all that rising tide of words, Was smothered never to ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... latter promptly tumbled on the wolf, grabbing him anywhere, and often getting a terrific wound himself at the same time. As soon as he had seized the wolf and was rolling over with him in the grapple the other dogs joined in the fray and dispatched the quarry without much ...
— Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches • Theodore Roosevelt

... alike. It was fair that they should do so, for the two hundred would willingly have been in the thick of battle, and, further, though they did not fight, they helped the fighters, and by guarding the heavy baggage contributed to the victory as really as if they had been in the fray and come out of it with ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... assume the form of tradition in the tale of the Seven Caves,[1] whence the Mexicans and the Tezcucans, as well as the Tlaxcaltecans, are said to have emigrated to Mexico.[2] Perhaps the earliest mention of this tradition may be found in the writings of Fray Toribio de Paredes, surnamed Motolinia. It dates back to 1540 A.D.[3] But it is not to be overlooked that ten years previously, in 1530, the story of the Seven Cities, which was the form in which the ...
— Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico; Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos • Adolphus Bandelier

... conceded to the German Dominicans. The Augustinians grew jealous of the Dominicans, and an Augustinian Monk, Martin Luther, affixed to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral ninety-five articles against the abuse of indulgences. This started the fray in Germany with Luther at the head of this heresy. The gravest difference of opinion had to do with the Communion. "Luther retained one-half of the mystery, and rejected the other half. He confesses that the body of Jesus ...
— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... for action, were at St. Michael's; the Catholics and the regulars of the city guard were posted on the square. Between thirty-five and forty thousand men were up, according to the most moderate computation. All parties were excited, and eager for the fray. The fires of religious hatred burned fiercely in every breast. Many malefactors and outlaws, who had found refuge in the course of recent events at Antwerp, were in the ranks of the Calvinists, profaning a sacred cause, and inspiring a fanatical party with bloody resolutions. ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... this fight, senores," said he, "if you surrender your weapons to me, the lawful alguacil (officer) of this district." He then took the macho's knife, and I gave him my revolver and stripped for the fray. ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann

... to the southward of Corfu, off the small island of Paxo, and a smart action ensued. It ended in the defeat of Ali-Chabelli, whose galleys were captured and towed by Doria into Paxo. That veteran fighter was himself in the thickest of the fray, and, conspicuous in his crimson doublet, had been an object of attention to the marksmen of Chabelli during the entire action. In spite of the receipt of a severe wound in the knee, the admiral refused to go below until victory ...
— Great Pirate Stories • Various

... thing was to save one's self up for women—at about 18. I dropped the practice easily, in spite of indulging my imagination about coitus. I thought of the initiation with prostitutes at 18, with the mixed feelings that even the most combative soldier must regard the fray. The hypogastric feeling above referred to would come on—which I liked and disliked at the same time. The first occasion on which I remember this feeling was when I got my first braces. Anything that harped on my sex produced it. Every time I received the sacrament, which I was forced to do very ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... weight, to have all the water of the Oise in my trousers-pockets. You can never know, till you try it, what a dead pull a river makes against a man. Death himself had me by the heels, for this was his last ambuscado, and he must now join personally in the fray. And still I held to my paddle. At last I dragged myself on to my stomach on the trunk, and lay there a breathless sop, with a mingled sense of humour and injustice. A poor figure I must have presented to Burns upon the hill-top with his team. But there was the paddle ...
— An Inland Voyage • Robert Louis Stevenson

... sounds within, among which he heard the full, manly voice of Robert Willoughby, calling on the garrison to be firm, he raised an answering yell to those of the Mohawks, the war-whoop of his tribe, and plunged into the fray with the desperation of one who ran a muck, and with the delight of ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper

... such horrid fray, Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen Betwixt Astrea[6] and the Scorpion sign, Wherein all things created first he weighed, The pendulous round Earth with balanced air In counterpoise, now ponders all events, Battles and realms. In these he put two ...
— The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' • Thomas Orchard

... him to answer a woman uncivilly under any circumstances. But they parted as duellists part before the fray. Miss Marvell acknowledged his "Good afternoon," with a pleasant bow, keeping her hands the while in the pockets of her serge jacket, and she remained standing till Winnington ...
— Delia Blanchflower • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... rough sea, and the coming vessels dashed through heavy waves as they drove onward to the fray. From the flag-ship of the fleet of Japan streamed the admiral's signal, not unlike the famous signal of Nelson at Trafalgar, "The defense of our empire depends upon this action. You are expected to do ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... witnessed the fray from the window, but she wasn't the only grown-up spectator. A tall, dark man loaded down with a huge watermelon had come up the road just in time to hear and see the whole performance, and a smile of satisfaction lit his face when the ...
— Tabitha at Ivy Hall • Ruth Alberta Brown

... loved law and order in all things pertaining to the human race, scented combat in the air. It was enough. Cinders would permit no brawling among his betters if he could by any means prevent it. With tail cocked and every hair bristling, he rushed into the fray, barking aggressively. ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell

... is! Fire away, and don't miss!" cried Seth, hastily following Sol, who had climbed to the top of the dresser as a good perch from which to view the approaching fray. ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott

... committed a grave error. Wisdom lay in maintaining the attitude of repudiation; it would at least have afforded some excuse for her and Rotherby. Instead, she now recklessly flung off that armor, and went naked down into the fray. ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini

... immortal Little Arthur could not have placed EDDY I. with greater chronological exactitude. In fact there seems to be no subject on which you cannot write informatively, which makes me sorry that you will not join in the literary fray in the local paper, as it deprives the natives of a ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Oct. 17, 1917 • Various

... 1482. The feuds of the noble families della Croce and della Valle were then raging in the streets of Rome. On the night of April 3 they fought a pitched battle in the neighborhood of the Pantheon, the factions of Orsini and Colonna joining in the fray. Many of the combatants were left dead before the palaces of the Vallensi; the numbers of the wounded were variously estimated; and all Rome seemed to be upon the verge of civil war. Roberto da Lecce, who was drawing large congregations, not only of the common ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... and last of the "comical satires" is "Poetaster," acted, once more, by the Children of the Chapel in 1601, and Jonson's only avowed contribution to the fray. According to the author's own account, this play was written in fifteen weeks on a report that his enemies had entrusted to Dekker the preparation of "Satiromastix, the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet," a ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson

... found himself in the fray, fighting as hard as ever. The Riverlawns had suffered heavily, but the organization still maintained its full number of companies. It supported Long in the second and third attacks and lost seven additional men, including a second lieutenant and ...
— An Undivided Union • Oliver Optic

... its close ere my tutor was satisfied with the progress I had made under his care and declared me fit for the fray. ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson

... cream—it's poison, you know,' Monkey would reply. And up would shoot the keen old face, preened for the fray. ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood

... frightened, could only grab Prince's collar, to keep him from rushing into the fray; and when Joe started kicking, it was all she could do not to let him go. But she knew Athol—her dearest brother—would say it wasn't fair play. So she tugged, and Prince tugged; while the boys, fiercely silent, rocked to and fro; and Christine ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... watched, with something like a smile on his face. He seemed to have forgotten all about his own recent predicament in seeing these young rowdies receiving their just dues. If he had not been old and lame possibly he might have insisted on joining in the fray, and adding to the punishment being meted out to ...
— The Boy Scouts of Lenox - Or The Hike Over Big Bear Mountain • Frank V. Webster

... Many a ren aljube beside, Many a plume of gallant air, Many a rich-grain'd cappellare, Many a boot a-borzegui, Many a silken string and tie, Many a spur of gold there clung, Many a silver stirrup swung. All the men that rode that day Were expert at battle-fray: Midst of all that pomp and pow'r Chyquo Monarch of the Moor. Moorish dames and maidens high Them from proud Alhambra eye; And the Moorish Queen so grey In this guise was heard to say: "Speed thee hence my son and love! Mahomet thy Guardian prove! Crown'd ...
— Targum • George Borrow

... field will test the Cavalry, or clad in blue or red; In all things they must "thorough" be, as well as thorough-bred. "Heavy" or "light," they'll have to fight; not such mad, headlong fray, As marked for fame with pride—and shame—that Balaklava day, When away our lads did go, With ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, October 4, 1890 • Various

... Slyboots was upon him, cut him sharply with his sword, and then scampered out of the window and took refuge in a great rose, apologizing to the little fairy whose home it was. With his back against the rose-leaves, and his shield on guard, Slyboots waited for the fray. ...
— The Fairy Nightcaps • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... fried, and set before some of their comrades, who ate them without knowing what they were. When they had done eating, the others told them what they had made a meal of, in consequence of which a quarrel ensued, swords were drawn, and a battle took place. Several were killed in the fray, the greater part of whom were those concerned in the horrid massacre of the woman, and who had practised such an inhuman ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox

... Captain then, and nothing did he say, But he turn'd him to his little band, O, few, I ween, were they! The relics of the bravest force that ever fought in fray. No one of all that company but bore a gentle name, 35 Not one whose fathers had not stood in Scotland's fields of fame. All they had march'd with great Dundee to where he fought and fell, And in the deadly battle-strife had venged their leader well; And they had bent the knee to earth ...
— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty

... relate Pollyooly's heart, inured to violence by her battles with the young male inhabitants of the slum behind the Temple, where she had lodged before becoming the housekeeper of the Honourable John Ruffin, leapt joyfully at the thought of the fray, in spite of her friendship with Hilary Vance; and her quick mind grasped the fact that she might watch it in security from the door of her bedroom. Then her duty to her host ...
— Happy Pollyooly - The Rich Little Poor Girl • Edgar Jepson

... and with which I was unacquainted; that the number I had to contend with now would be four, three of them provided with bludgeons, and the fourth with a hanger and pistols; that release by the order of Mr. Clifton was not impossible; and that, if I began a fray, I should excite cowardice to action; and, having begun, Mac Fane would scarcely, miss ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... again, even as a war-horse that snuffs the fray. This time Franklin Marmion seemed to recognise the implied challenge, for he looked round the crowded theatre with a curious smile, which seemed to say: "Yes, gentlemen, I see that some of you are getting ready for a tussle. I am in hopes of being able ...
— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith

... hot blood That fills the warrior's eyes; For every drop that falls, a mighty flood Our foemen's hearts shall yield us, when the dawn Begins of that last day Whose red light ushers in the fatal fray, Such as shall bring us back old victories, Or of the empire, evermore withdrawn. Shall make a realm of silence and of gloom, Where all may read the doom, But none shall dream the horrid history! I do not weep—I do not shrink—I ...
— Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII No. 4, April 1848 • Various

... and his right arm shot out. The blow caught his foe fairly under the left ear, and he went sprawling; but he was down only for a moment. Springing to his feet, he hurled himself into the fray with redoubled fury. Again he was knocked down, and again he renewed the battle, ...
— Jim Spurling, Fisherman - or Making Good • Albert Walter Tolman

... walked back together. The feverish joy of the gambler showed in the Major's eye as they drew their chairs up to the little antique chess table and began to place their pieces ready for the fray. Then a thought struck him, and he ...
— Lady of the Barge and Others, Entire Collection • W.W. Jacobs

... you things since then befallen. After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought, Where your brave father breathed ...
— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge

... battles tell us how these reserve troops fret, and fume, and worry, as they are kept resting idly while the roar of battle rages around them. It would seem as if the men became so eager and impatient that when at last the order to advance is given, they dash into the fray with a zest and fury which carries everything ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 53, November 11, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... balance. Several times I was sent for by Rogers and his colleagues for a war council, and sometimes, as I detailed my lines of defence and enumerated my resources, I suspected that even these storm-seasoned warriors were tiring of the fray. ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

... Gordons gay in English blude They wat their hose and shoon; The Lindsays flew like fire aboot Till a' the fray was dune.' ...
— Penelope's Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... maybe I don't. Anyhow, on in the cause of Mignon! I feel like one of the knights of old who buckled on his armor and went forth to the fray with his lady's colors tied to his sleeve, or his lance, or some of his belongings. I've forgotten just what the style was. We are gallant knights, going forth to battle, wearing Marjorie's colors, and Mignon will have ...
— Marjorie Dean - High School Sophomore • Pauline Lester

... with his coat off and his sleeves tucked up, still awaited his man as if nothing had happened, and seemed surprised that Paddy was not as eager as before for the fray. The latter, however, quite sobered by this time, merely cried out in the hearing ...
— The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch • Talbot Baines Reed

... contained reports of the proceedings which were practically identical up to a certain point. It was about the commencement of the actual bloodshed that they differed. The Irish Times reporter believed that Mr. Shea had begun the fray by striking Augusta Goold behind the ear with his clenched fist. The Daily Express man claimed to have overheard Mr. O'Rourke urging his friends to brain a member of the audience with a chair. The Freeman's Journal held that ...
— Hyacinth - 1906 • George A. Birmingham

... "a stag is said to fray his head when he rubs it against a tree to...cause the outward coat of the new ...
— The Poetaster - Or, His Arraignment • Ben Jonson

... attempts to force way through armed guard. Two seriously wounded. Sobering effect of the accident. Vigilance committee organized. Suspected Spaniards arrested. Trial of the Mexicana. Always wore male attire, was foremost in fray, and, armed with brace of pistols, fought like a fury. Sentenced to leave by daylight. Indirect cause of fight. Woman always to blame. Trial of ringleaders. Sentences of whipping, and to leave. Confiscation of property for benefit of wounded. Anguish of the author when Spaniards were whipped. ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

... denounced his writings. Abelard appealed for a hearing, and the two champions met in St. Stephen's church at Sens before the king, the hierarchy and a brilliant and expectant audience; the ever-victorious knight-errant of disputation, stood forth, eager for the fray, but St. Bernard simply rose and read out seventeen propositions from his opponent's works, which he declared to be heretical. Abelard in disgust left the lists, and was condemned unheard to perpetual silence. The pope, to whom he appealed, ...
— The Story of Paris • Thomas Okey

... duel in form was not to be thought of, because in that they would have to fight the son and not the father, and the great object would be frustrated. But the Bourgeois might be killed in a sudden fray, when blood was up and swords drawn, when no one, as De Pean remarked, would be able to find an i undotted or a t uncrossed in a fair record of the transaction, which would impose upon the most critical judge as an honorable and justifiable act ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... filling the air, and had gone downstairs again himself with a miserably unoccupied day in front of him—a day in which to remember and overcome the fact that, instead of being in the arena of which the echoes reached him, he was doomed to be a spectator from afar, who could take no part in the fray. But so much Sir William had not known. How should we any of us know what the inward counterpart is to the outward manifestation? know that the person who comes into the room may be, although appearing ...
— The Arbiter - A Novel • Lady F. E. E. Bell

... Sir King, you hold, Brings you trouble, as I foretold. Be sure if this year you seek the fray, You suffer not Berngerd at home to ...
— Queen Berngerd, The Bard and the Dreams - and other ballads • Thomas J. Wise

... whetted helmet-hewer,[74] I who oft have burnished brand, From the fray went all unwilling When Njal's rooftree crackling roared; Out I leapt when bands of spearmen Lighted there a blaze of flame! Listen men unto my moaning, Mark the telling ...
— The story of Burnt Njal - From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga • Anonymous

... worming his way desperately through the masses of femininity, and resisting all attempts to engage him in the local fray, emerged at length into the darkened hall where the air was, as he told himself in a frenzied flight of imagination, less like a combination of a menagerie and a perfume shop. Here, in a quiet corner, sat Lydia's father alone. He held in one hand a large platter piled ...
— Quit Your Worrying! • George Wharton James

... river; and have besides attacked the house of Quaker Geddes, one of the principal partners of the Tide-net Fishing Company, and done a great deal of damage. Am sorry to add, young Mr. Latimer was in the fray and has not since been heard of. Murder is spoke of, but that may be a word of course. As the young gentleman has behaved rather oddly while in these parts, as in declining to dine with me more than once, and going about the country with strolling ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... when he was usually ejected into the street, where he forthwith began to make Rome howl, and paint the town red. At this point the policeman's whistle sounded, and the force knew Joe was on the warpath, and that duty called them to the fray. ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... clergyman mounted the superintendent's platform, and strove to shed the oil of peace upon those seething waters. Even the class-teachers had broken the rails out of the Windsor chair-backs, and joined the hideous fray, irrespective ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... said Halbert, laying his finger on his nose, with a knowing expression, 'my young lady is safe from harm so long as you are out of the Master of Albany's reach. Had you come by a canny thrust in the fray, as no doubt was his purpose, or were you in his hands to be mewed in a convent, then were your sister worth the wedding; but the Master will never wed her while you live and have friends to back you, and his father, the Regent, will see she has no ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge

... him, and the rest, His friends and enemies; whose sterne fight I saw, And heard their words before, and in the fray. ...
— Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois • George Chapman

... somewhat sharply, for he erroneously fancied that the missionary's love of fighting had led him into the fray. ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne

... going to be anybody's sister Emily," said Betty, excited a little by the sense of the fray, "I shouldn't want to ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... said elsewhere, the future struggle in the South will be, not between white men and black men, but between capital and labor, landlord and tenant. Already the cohorts are marshalling to the fray; already the forces are mustering to the field at the sound of ...
— Black and White - Land, Labor, and Politics in the South • Timothy Thomas Fortune

... is a blunder; every battle a blot of shame upon human nature; and the greatest wisdom a successful belligerent can shew, even when he has been forced into the fray by his beaten antagonist, is to get out of it as fast as he can. But some wars are viewed, not as they ought to be, as indications of the slow progress of the human race from barbarism, but through the medium of the lofty and chivalrous ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 425 - Volume 17, New Series, February 21, 1852 • Various

... drawn; While, like the snows that clothe the wintry lawn His waving wings with rainbow colour gay On either naked shoulder seem'd to play; And, filing far behind, a countless train In sad procession hid the groaning plain: Some, captive, seem'd in long disastrous strife, Some, in the deadly fray, bereft of life; And freshly wounded some. A viewless hand Led me to mingle with the mornful band, And learn the fortunes of the sentenced crew, Who, pierced by Love, had bid the world adieu. With keen survey I mark'd the ghostly show, To find a shade among the sons of woe To memory known: ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

... had once seen a theatrical performance and remembered the heroic appeals of the Thespian belligerents, "on to the fray! ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 2 • Charles Farrar Browne

... seemed to sweep over the crowd. The police rushed in from all quarters, but their efforts seemed powerless. My new acquaintance and myself, the innocent cause of all the trouble, managed to escape from the thick of the fray—he with the loss of a hat and a bleeding face; and I in much worse shape—physically sound, but—I had lost my twenty-two cents! We hurriedly entered a dark canyon which led to wider paths where quiet reigned. The tumult in the park, sharply accentuated by ...
— The Statesmen Snowbound • Robert Fitzgerald

... selling them, it is not so easy to sell nineteen volumes of a stone-dead author, particularly if you live three miles from a railway-station and do not keep a trap. Elia, the gentle Elia, as it is the idiotic fashion to call a writer who could handle his 'maulies' in a fray as well as Hazlitt himself, has told us how he could never see well-bound books he did not care about, but he longed to strip them so that he might warm his ragged veterans in their spoils. My copy of Hannah More ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell

... the Audience Hall; how long wilt thou have them wait?" I have given my father's younger son the guidance of the State. "The steeds are saddled, the Captains call for the orders of the day." Tell them that I shall ride no more to the hunting or the fray. ...
— Last Poems • Laurence Hope

... author of the 'Diversions of Purley,' a man to be always remembered with gratitude in America, for the part which he took in the struggle between the colonies and the mother country. His connection with the press was one long series of trials for libel, in which he always got the worst of the fray. In fact, he rather appeared to like being in hot water, for he more than once wrote an article with the full intention of standing the trial which he knew would be sure to follow its publication. One of his reasons may have been that this was the only way in which he could ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... the two Greeks hastened from the house. Agias could hardly keep pace with his cousin's tremendous stride. Demetrius was like a war-horse, which snuffs the battle from afar and tugs at the rein to join in the fray. They plunged through the dark streets. Once a man sprang out from a doorway before them with a cudgel. He may have been a footpad; but Demetrius, without pausing in his haste, smote the fellow between the eyes with a terrible fist, and the wretched ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis

... right jaw," but it deserved mention more extended, for the whitish streak ran like a groove from just below the ear-tip to the angle of the square, resolute chin. It looked as though in some desperate fray a mad sweep had been made with vengeful blade straight for the jugular, and, just missing that, had laid open the jaw for full four inches. "But," said Feeny, "what could he have been doing, and in ...
— Foes in Ambush • Charles King

... briefest possible time, from a peaceful, industrious camp, Suffering Creek was transformed into a war base, every citizen stirred not only to defense of his own, but with a longing to march out to the fray, to seek these land pirates in the open and to exterminate them, as they would willingly ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... she! From the soft-curtained chamber of Hymen she fled, By the breath of giant Zephyr sped, And shield-bearing throngs in marshalled array Hounded her flight o'er the printless way, Where the swift-flashing oar The fair booty bore To swirling Sim'o-is' leafy shore, And stirred the crimson fray. —Trans. by BLACKIE. ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson

... see that they do not miss it," she continued, turning to me. "I see you are out for the fray, Chota [12] Rani! Hurl your shafts ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore

... though with tattered clothes. Happily, he was not seriously hurt. His travelling overcoat was divided into two unequal parts, and his trousers resembled those of certain Indians, which fit less compactly than they are easy to put on. Aouda had escaped unharmed, and Fix alone bore marks of the fray in ...
— Around the World in 80 Days • Jules Verne

... height, and attackers and defenders were wild with excitement, the battering-ram threatening, the gates cracking, missiles flying, and both parties shouting with all their might, Donald Dhu was blowing his best, stamping up and down, gazing wildly at the participators in the fray, when in his excitement he stepped upon a loose stone near the edge of the tower, where the crenelation was broken away, slipped, and went headlong down, to fall in a sitting position, and cause the ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn

... had—sufficient stuff to furnish forth a soul's epic encounter between Nature and Circumstance: and metaphor, simile, analysis, all the fraternity of old lamps for lighting our abysmal darkness, have to be rubbed, that we may get a glimpse of the fray. ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... will see in this frank narrative how many elements were conjoined to bring about the outrage. Local jealousy and despite, the rage against the Bishop and his priests, the eagerness of the needy in hope of spoil, the excitement of a fray in which the first blow had been struck by the adversary with just the crown of a supposed religious motive to give the courage of a great cause to the rioters: while on the other hand the Bishop's rashness in taking the defence upon himself and slighting the assistance ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant

... I found one devil told us both. Come, Dollallolla, Huncamunca, come; Within we'll wait for the victorious Thumb; In peace and safety we secure may stay, While to his arm we trust the bloody fray; Though men and giants should conspire with gods, [1] He is alone equal to all ...
— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding

... the capture the number allowed was exceeded, it is said by the connivance of the convict sailors. Several of the prisoners had before been relieved of their irons: among the rest, Swallow, the pirate captain; and when the assault commenced, there were nine, and soon after sixteen engaged in the fray. There were only two sentinels, and one other soldier unarmed on deck. Lieut. Carew had left the vessel to fish, accompanied by the surgeon, the mate, a soldier, and the prisoner Popjoy. A few minutes after, he heard the firing of a musket, and hastened towards the vessel; but ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... vol. i. p. 164) informs us that in 1747 the privates of the 42d regiment, then in Flanders, were for the most part permitted to carry targets. A person thus armed had a considerable advantage in private fray. Among verses between Swift and Sheridan, lately published by Dr. Barrett, there is an account of such an encounter, in which the circumstances, and consequently the relative superiority of the combatants, are precisely the reverse of ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... themselves to the fertile imagination of fifteen. But the favourite amusement was a bolstering match. One room would challenge another, and stripping the covers off their bolsters, would meet in mortal fray. A bolster well wielded, especially when dexterously applied to the legs, is a very efficient instrument to bring a boy to the ground; but it doesn't hurt very much, even when the blows fall on the head. Hence these matches were excellent trials of strength ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... rushed into the fray: "Philo-Milton," with a Vindication of the "Paradise Lost" from the charge of exculpating "Cain: A Mystery," London, 1822; "Britannicus," with a pamphlet entitled, Revolutionary Causes, etc., and A Postscript containing Strictures on "Cain," etc., ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... first time England saw the shield 'twas round a Norman neck, On board a ship from Valery, King William was on deck. A Norman lance the colors wore, in Hastings' fatal fray—St. Willibald for Bareacres! 'twas double gules that day! O Heaven and sweet St. Willibald! in many a battle since A loyal-hearted Bareacres has ridden by his Prince! At Acre with Plantagenet, with Edward at ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... thin made, savage looking man, with the petronel in his hand, must be Andrew Ker of Faldonside, a brother's son, I believe, of the celebrated Sir David Ker of Cessford; his look and bearing those of a Border freebooter, his disposition so savage that, during the fray in the cabinet, he presented his loaded piece at the bosom of the young and beautiful Queen, that queen also being within a few weeks of becoming ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... ravens. But even the boldest of these was torn to pieces by the dragon, who attacked them tooth and nail. The queen, too, who was a spectator of this savage fight, kicked down chunks of the wall, and armed with these helped her dear husband in the fray. Victory at length rested with them, and as they flew to one another's arms, the enchantment was brought to an end by a thunderbolt which plunged into the lake and dried ...
— Old-Time Stories • Charles Perrault

... these was the fisherman, the two others were a couple of gendarmes and another fisher, and the two officers threw themselves into the fray, with the result that the next minute Dale was firmly ...
— Witness to the Deed • George Manville Fenn

... of those opposed to the thorough elevation of women, to assert that our influence is distinctly losing ground. Irresponsible assertion is the last refuge of the force whose arguments have fallen off in the fray, and "unconscious annihilation" is as yet a very agreeable condition. It might be replied, in the language ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... was good. Trout seemed to greet him cheerily and sprang eagerly to the fray. They bit at any sort of silken fly ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 • Various



Words linked to "Fray" :   break, rub, meet, wear, wear out, bust, touch, scrap, combat, ruffle, contact, fight, fall apart, fighting, adjoin



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com