affray

Plural: affrays

Noun

noisy quarrel
a noisy fight
The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
Terror.

Verb

Verb Forms: affrayed, affraying, affrays

To frighten or intimidate someone.
To startle from quiet; to alarm.
To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.

Examples

His impressive vocabulary did not affray me in the slightest.
The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English affraien (“to terrify, frighten”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”) and Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”) (compare modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfridāre.
The second part of this is in turn from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with Old High German fridu (“peace”), Old English friþ (“peace, frith”), Old English frēod (“peace, friendship”), German Friede (“peace”). More at free, friend.

Synonyms

altercation, disturbance, fracas, fray, ruffle, alarm, brawl, fright, terror

Scrabble Score: 15

affray: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
affray: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
affray: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

affray: valid Words With Friends Word