FRAY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Fray

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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

... Ingersoll's life stretching itself straight. Every change to him meant progress. Success is a question of temperament—it is all a matter of the red corpuscle. Ingersoll was a success; happy, exuberant, joying in life, reveling in existence, he marched to the front in every fray. ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard

... caused a grievous fray, For love of her brave men did fight, The eyes of her made sages fey And put their hearts in woeful plight. To her no rhymes will I indite, For her no garlands will I twine, Though she be made of flowers and light No lady is so fair ...

— The Little Book of Modern Verse • Jessie B. Rittenhouse

... and affairs were brought to such a pass that, in an army of twenty thousand soldiers, there were not to be found two thousand foot soldiers. They had, besides this, used every art to lessen fatigue and danger to themselves and their soldiers, not killing in the fray, but taking prisoners and liberating without ransom. They did not attack towns at night, nor did the garrisons of the towns attack encampments at night; they did not surround the camp either with stockade or ditch, nor did they campaign in the winter. All these things were permitted ...

— The Prince • Niccolo Machiavelli

... the shooting fray my soul sulked darkly in its tent and meditated while I went on my usual gay rounds of self-enjoyment. The garden was being brought to a most glorious mid-August triumph and the inhabitants for miles ...

— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... feet. She had forgotten prudence; she had forgotten politeness; her eyes were bright with suppressed fire, and her glib Irish tongue was eager to enter into the fray. ...

— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

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