5 entries under this word
n. [Abbreviated from affray, q. v.] 1. Affray; broil; contest; combat. Who began this bloody fray? Shak. Foes disabled in the brutal fray. Byron. 2. [See infra, FRAY, v. t., to rub.] A fret or chafe in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.
[ĭmp. & p. p. FRAYED; p. pr. & vb. n. FRAYING.] [See supra.] To frighten; to terrify; to alarm. I. Taylor. What frays ye, that were wont to comfort me affrayed? Spenser. She comes again, like ring-dove frayed and fled. Keats.
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. Massinger.
v. t. [O. Fr. frayer, froyer, Pr., Sp., & Pg. fregar, It. fregare, Lat. fricare, to rub.] To rub; to wear, or wear off, by rubbing; to fret, as cloth; as, a deer is said to fray her head.
v. i. 1. To rub.
We can show the marks he made When ’gainst the oak his antlers frayed. W. Scott.
Sense 2. To wear out easily by rubbing; to wear off the threads of the warp or of the woof so that the cross threads shall be loose; to ravel; as, the cloth frays badly.
A suit of frayed magnificence. Tennyson.