[aphetic f. AFFRAY, EFFRAY v.]
1. trans. To affect with fear, make afraid, frighten. Cf. AFFRAY v. 2. Obs. exc. poet.
a. 1300, 1330. [see FRAYED ppl. a.].
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1553. For al hit frayes my flesche þe fyngres so grymme.
14[?]. Sir Beues, 2396 (MS. M.).
| The dragon kest vp a yelle, | |
| That it wolde haue frayed the deuyl of hel. |
1531. Tindale, Exp. 1 John (1537), 14. That … we shulde exalte our selues ouer you … frayenge you with the bugge of excommunicacyon.
1604. Bp. W. Barlow, Confer. Hampton Crt., in Phenix (1721), I. 154. A Puritan is a Protestant fray’d out of his Wits.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, 149. And other some with baleful sprig she ’frays.
1832. J. Bree, St. Herbert’s Isle, 98.
| He frayed the monsters with his bugle’s sound, | |
| And snatched a short repose stretched on the heathery ground. |
1850. Browning, Xmas Eve & Easter Day.
| My warnings fray | |
| No one, and no one they convert. |
absol. 1486. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing, C j. And when she hath plumyd ynough: go to her softly for frayenge: and rewarde her on the foule.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 40.
| In stead of fraying they themselves did feare, | |
| And trembled, as them passing they beheld. |
2. To frighten or scare away. Also to fray away, off, or out. Cf. AFFRAY v. 4. Obs. exc. arch.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 55. God hath ordeyned … a specyall remedy, wherwith we may fray them away.
1533. Tindale, Supper of Lord, cv b. Why fraye ye the commen people from the lytteral sense with thys bugge?
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., V. ii. Are the turtles frayed out of their nests?
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. i. 560. It [the Basilisk] … frayeth away other serpents with the hissing.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), X. 232. Can he fray off the vulture from his breast, that night and day is gnawing his heart, and wounding it with ghastly and amazing reflection?
1835. Scott, Betrothed, xxiii. A murrain on thy voice! it is enough to fray every hawk from the perch.
1867. Manning, Eng. & Christendom, 154. We should have to answer to the Good Shepherd, if so much as one of His sheep were frayed away from the fold by harsh voices or rough handling on our part.
absol. 1542. Becon, David’s Harp, Wks. 1564, I. 147. Exhort unto virtue. Fray away from vice.
b. simply. To drive away, disperse.
1635. Quarles, Embl., I. xiv. (1718), 57.
| Thy light will fray | |
| These horrid mists; sweet Phosphor, bring the day. |
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., II. Death (1858), 205.
| Thy shades but thin and narrow be, | |
| Which his first looks will quickly fray: | |
| Mists make but triumphs for the day. |
† 3. intr. To be afraid or frightened; to fear. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Image Hypocr., 509. Yow fray not of his rod.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 606.
| Quhairfoir, he said, thai had no caus to dreid, | |
| Nor ȝit to fray for thai wald haif no neid. |
1638. R. Baillie, Lett. (1775), I. 80. This and the convoy of it make us tremble for fear of division.—Thir thingis make us fray.
† 4. trans. To assault, attack, or make an attack upon; to attack and drive off; rarely to make a raid on (a place). Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5236.
| The grekys … Segh the kyng of the cuntre cum hom agayne, | |
| With fele folke vppon fote, þat hom fray wold. |
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 237.
| Thus the forest they fray, | |
| Hertus bade at abey. |
c. 1575. Durham Depositions (Surtees), 286. Neither this examinate nor his brother, Thomas Walton, ever did lay in wayt nor frayd off the said Sir Richard Mylner, in any malicious intent or grieff.
5. intr. To make a disturbance; to quarrel or fight. Also, to make an attack upon. To fray it out: to settle by fighting. Obs. exc. arch.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 147. Why shuld we fray?
1465. Paston, Lett., No. 512, II. 205. My Lord of Suffolks men come from Claxton to Norwich, and face us and fray uppon us, this dayly.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., IV. lxxi. (1811), 50. Conan Meridok with a certayne of knyghtes of his affynyte, was purposed to haue frayed with the sayd Maximus, and to haue distressed hym.
1566. Drant, Horace’s Sat., III. B v b.
| For foode, and harboure gan they fray: at firste, with toothe and nayle, | |
| And then, wt clubbes, and then with swords, which vse had taught t’assayle |
1570. Song, in Wit & Sci., etc. (Shaks. Soc.), 90.
| The sonne is up with hys bryght beames, | |
| As thoughe he woolde with the now fraye, | |
| And bete the up out of thy dreames | |
| To rayse the up: aryse I say. |
1657. Howell, Londinop., 337. Then next is the Clinke, a Goale or Prison for the Trespassers in those parts, namely, in old time for such as should brabble, fray, or break the peace on the said Bank, or in the Brothel Houses.
1889. Univ. Rev., V. Sept., 38.
| Sooner than fray it out thou wouldst retire, | |
| Quitting possession to the doughty slave. |
Hence Fraying vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1450. Merlin, 339. Arthur was also fallen to grounde with the frayinge that thei hurteled to-geder.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John x. 1. They doe their endeuour to maynteyn their tyrannie with disceytes, frayinges, wiles, traynes, thretninges and wicked conspiracies.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 194. Of fraying of babes.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 393–4. Neither thinketh he that our Lord Jesus Christ is only man, but only avoideth this clause the mother of bearing of God as a fraying ghost.
