Also 6 frai(e, 7 frey. [aphetic f. AFFRAY, EFFRAY. Cf. FRAY v.1]
1. A feeling of fear; alarm, fright, terror. Also in phrase to take a or the fray. Cf. AFFRAY sb. 2. Obs. exc. Sc.
a. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 4775 (Trin.).
| Whenne iacob was moost in fray | |
| God him coumfortide þat al do may. |
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxix. (Tollem. MS.). It [the stone Crisolitus] … helpeþ nyȝte frayes and dredes.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 243. The knyȝhtes of the Romanes [wente] in clothenge of redde in the day a fore they scholde fiȝte, that theire hertes scholde not be in fray or feere to beholde bloode.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xii. 51.
| Al suddanly the Latynis tuke ane fray, | |
| And gaif the bak bedene, and fled away. |
1559–66. Hist. Estate Scot., in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844), 61. The Friers takeing the fray … begane to dispose amongst their acquaintance the best of their goods.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Sonn., viii.
| The weary mariner so fast not flies | |
| An howling tempest, harbour to attain, | |
| Nor shepherd hastes, when frays of wolves arise, | |
| So fast to fold to save his bleating train. |
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. I. 148. Thus that Fray was over, and we came ashore again, recovered of the Fright we had been in.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 157.
| Whan the hail Hellespont reboundit, | |
| And ky on Ida’s taps confoundit | |
| Ran down the hills for fray. |
† 2. An assault, attack. Cf. AFFRAY sb. 1. Obs.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 14.
| Þou woldist bleede for mannis nede, | |
| And suffre manye a feerdful fray. |
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 95. Hamsokne or Hamfare, þat is, a fray made in an howse.
c. 1575. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 300. After that Crampton had maid a fraye of the said Martyn, one Robert Johnson cauld for the constable, to carry them to the stoks.
3. A disturbance, esp. one caused by fighting; a noisy quarrel, a brawl; a fight, skirmish, conflict.
[1382. Durh. Halm. Rolls (Surtees), 171. De quodam fray in campo de Walleshond per homines de Tynnemouth ad effusionem sanguinis.]
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 105.
| & all þe ladyes … | |
| Of þis grete fraye þe wheche þey sie and herden, weron sore agast. |
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xvi. 16. Incontynent after dyner, there began a great fraye bitwene some of the gromes and pages of the strangers, and of the archers of Inglande.
1609. Rowlands, Knaue of Clubbes, 3.
| And Fleete-street fraies, when Prentices | |
| With Clubs did knocke thee downe. |
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 46. The Vice-Admiral was seen to blow up his Decks several times, distributing the Hollanders as Doles to the Fishes, and left not off till Night parted the Fray.
1799. Nelson, 12 Sept., in Nicolas, Disp., IV. 11. The Turks are returned to Constantinople having had a fray with the Sicilians, in which many lives were lost.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VI. 157. He [Alexander] immediately charged into the thickest of the fray, where the principal Persian leaders were engaged.
1878. Bayne, Purit. Rev., iv. 126. Like a standing army, enlisted to do the fighting against Protestants, they [the Jesuits] were always eager for the fray.
Proverb.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xl. (Alford), 306. The first blow makes the Wrong, but the second makes the Fray.
1676. Hale, Contempl., I. 242. It is a true Proverb, It is the second blow makes the fray.
b. transf. (esp. ‘a war of words’).
1702. C. Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, III. II i. (1852), 356–7. It continued until that fray between that Bishop, and Laud, the Bishop of London, who set himself to extirpate and extinguish all the non-conformists.
1851. Bright, Sp. Eccles. Titles Bill, 12 May. The noble Lord at the head of the Government commenced the fray by his celebrated letter.
1884. Rita, Vivienne, II. iv. I’ll wait and see you adorned for the fray.
† c. A din, noise, stir. Obs.
a. 1550[?]. Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), Freiris of Berwik, 197. Ȝone is Symone that makis all this fray.
1573. Tusser, Husb. lxxvii. (1878), 168. Where window is open, cat maketh a fray.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 468. The Toune was in Armes, the Bells ringing backward, the people shouting, and Drummes beating … I asked him what the fray was?
† 4. To stand at fray: to ‘show fight.’ Obs.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Badger-hunting, If the Hounds either encounter him, or undertake the Chase before he earths, he will then stand at fray, like a Bear, and make most incomparable Sport.
5. Comb., as fray-maker, -making.
1532. Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI., c. 4 § 3. They may be known as *Fray-makers and Fighters.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., IV. 28. Constables may by the Law, disarme and imprison peace-breakers, fray-makers, riotors, and others to prevent bloodshed, quarrels, and preserve the publike peace.
1884. A. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, I. vi. 233. Any church brawler lost his ears, and for a second offence might be branded with the letter F, as a fraymaker and fighter.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., I. i. (Arb.), 12.
| All the day long is he facing and craking | |
| Of his great actes in fighting and *fraymaking. |
b. Special comb., as † fray-bell, an alarm-bell formerly sounded on the occasion of a tumult. Also (perh. f. the verb-stem); † fray-boggard, a scarecrow; fray-bug, an object of fear; a bogy, spectre (whence fray-bug vb. trans., to scare as with a fray-bug; to terrify).
1864. J. Raine, Priory of Hexham, I. p. cxxiv. The common-bell beginning to peal; and then the great *fray-bell of the monastery boomed in answer.
1535. Coverdale, Baruch vi. 69. For like as a *frayboggarde in a garden off Cucumbers kepeth nothinge, euen so are their goddes of wod, of syluer & golde.
1555. Saunders, in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 1043/2. Howe lothe is this loyteryng sluggard to passe foorth in Goddes pathe. It fantasyeth forsooth much feare of *fray bugges.
1592. Stubbes, Motive Good Wks., 123. The broching of this fraibugge or scar-crow [Purgatory].
1671. S. Clarke, Mirr. Saints & Sinn. (ed. 4), I. 485. Event proveth that these are no Fray-Bugs.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. Conclusion (1550), 118. They *fraybugged them with the thundreboltes of their excommunycacyons and interdiccyons, and threttened to set all other nacions vpon them.
