FRAY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... off towards Fairfield, the riders came upon a remarkable group in high debate over a donkey—Lady Latimer, Gampling the tinker, and the rural policeman. My lady instantly summoned Mr. Carnegie to her succor in the fray, which, to judge from her countenance and the stolid visage of the emissary of the law, was obstinate. It appeared that the policeman claimed to arrest the donkey and convey him to the pound. The dry and hungry beast had been tethered ...

— The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax • Harriet Parr

... for a salary all his days, and after passing the thirty mark he had lost the courage to leap into the commercial fray and be his own man. He wished he might have been endowed at birth with a modicum of Matt Peasley's courage and ...

— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne

... Political Parties proved to be the most exciting of the series. Among the speakers were Mr. Foulke, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Howe, Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Blake, the Rev. Mr. Hinckley, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler, Mrs. Ellen Sully Fray, Mr. Blackwell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Martha McClellan Brown, the Rev. Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Martha E. Root and Miss Mary Desha. Without exception the sentiment was in favor of keeping strictly aloof from all political alliances. It was pointed ...

— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... the fray, leaving Squeers's family to restore him as best they might. Seeking his room with all possible haste, Nicholas considered seriously what course of action was best ...

— Ten Boys from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... simultaneous. From the canoes on both sides uprose a glittering, glistening rain of mother-of-pearl-handled tomahawks that descended into the waiting hands of the Somo men on deck, while the Marys on deck crouched down and scrambled out of the fray. At the same time that the Mary who had killed Borckman leapt the rail, Lerumie bent for the tomahawk she had dropped, and Jerry, aware of red war, slashed the hand that reached for the tomahawk. Lerumie ...

— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London

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