fray
Plural: frays
Noun
- a noisy fight
- A consequence of rubbing, unravelling, or wearing away; a fraying; also, a place where fraying has occurred.
- A noisy commotion, especially resulting from fighting; a brawl, a fight; also, a loud quarrel.
- A heated argument; a war of words.
- Conflict, disagreement.
- An assault or attack.
- A loud noise; a cacophony, a din.
- Fright, terror; (countable) an instance of this.
Verb
Verb Forms: frayed, fraying, frays
- To wear away or unravel the edge of fabric by rubbing.
- wear away by rubbing
- "The friction frayed the sleeve"
- cause friction
- 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.
- 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.
- To force or make (a path, way, etc.) through.
- To bruise (someone or something); also, to take the virginity of (someone, usually a female person); to deflower.
- To become unravelled or worn; to unravel.
- To rub.
- To rub.
- Of a deer: to rub its antlers against a tree, etc., to remove the velvet or to mark territory.
- Of a person's mental strength, nerves, temper, etc.: to become exhausted or worn out.
- To alarm or frighten (someone or something).
- Often followed by away, off, or out: to frighten or scare (someone or something) away.
- To assail or attack (someone or something); to drive (someone or something) away by attacking.
- To chase (someone or something) away; to disperse.
- To be afraid or frightened; to fear.
- To make an assault or attack; also, to create a disturbance; to brawl, to fight.
- To bear the expense of (something); to defray.
Examples
- The hectic day ended in her nerves frayed.
- The laces frayed at the cut end.
- The tension of the Scrabble match began to FRAY his nerves, leading to a hasty mistake.
- Though they did not know the reason for the dispute, they did not hesitate to leap into the fray.
Origin / 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.
Scrabble Score: 10
fray: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfray: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fray: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary