fray
/fɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.28 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
To bruise (someone or something); also, to take the virginity of (someone, usually a female person); to deflower.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "S. Paul alſo defineth the law to be the knowlege of ſyn, yͭ is, which accuſeth, frayeth the cõſcience, & maketh ſynnes knowen."
- "[W]ith the help of her consorts, [she] carried off the following goods of her said lady; viz. […] four striped muslin night-rails very little frayed; […]"
- "Everything told of long use and quiet slow decay; the very bell-rope in the porch was frayed into a fringe, and hoary with old age."
- "It was a little past mid-day when the four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross-Keys, Wood-street, Cheapside, London."
- "[T]his ſame Ladie Dryopee, the fayreſt Ladye tho / In all the land of Oechalye. Whom beeing then no mayd / (For why the God of Delos and of Delphos had her frayd) / Andræmon taketh too hys wyfe, and thinkes him well apayd."
- "Another distance, I do not know how far, of dry dark heather continually fraying against my knees, is traversed, when in front appears a coombe, overgrown with heather from summit to foot, and I stop suddenly."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɹeɪ/
- British English: /fɹeɪ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
frays (present, singular)
fraying (participle, present)
frayed (participle, past)
frayed (past)
frays (plural)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
frayed (first person, past)
frayest (archaic, present)
frayed (past, second person)
frayedst (archaic, past)
frayeth (archaic, present)