[ad. F. frayer:—OF. freiier to rub:—L. fricāre: see FRICTION.]
I. To rub; to come into collision.
1. intr. Of deer: (see quot. 1756). Also trans. in to fray their heads.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 69. The old harts do fray their heads upon the yong trees.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 23.
| Chiefe stags vpbearing croches high from the antlier hauted | |
| On trees stronglye fraying. |
1756. Whalley, Notes on B. Jonson’s Wks., V. 103. A deer is said to fray her head, when she rubs it against a tree to renew it, or to cause the outward coat of her new horns to fall off.
1884. Jefferies, Red Deer, vii. 112. Towards the end of July the harbourer begins to look round after the stags and notice their whereabouts. They are then fraying, rubbing the velvet off their new horns against the trees.
2. trans. To rub away, wear through by rubbing; to ravel out the edge or end of (something woven or twisted); occasionally, to chafe or irritate by friction.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 245, 2 Nov., ¶ 2. Four striped Muslin Night-Rails very little frayed.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Clear Starching, Pull out your pinner, holding it by the Edging, with dry and clean hands lest you fray it.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xvii. Every thing 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.
1873. A. Dobson, Vignettes in Rhyme, Sundial, xii.
| Blue-eyed, *frank-faced, with clear and open brow, | |
| Scar-seamed a little, as the women love; | |
| So kindly fronted that you marvelled how | |
| The frequent sword-hilt had so frayed his glove. |
1884. J. F. Goodhart, Dis. Childr., iv. (1891), 77. The forefinger, well-oiled, should be passed into the rectum, the polypus hooked down, and its pedicle frayed through with the nail.
fig. 1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., II. 1. The four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross-Keys.
b. intr. Of material: To become frayed, to ravel out. Also with out.
1721. Bailey, s.v. To fray, to fret as Cloth does by Rubbing.
1798. Jane Austen, Northang. Abb. (1833), I. iii. 14. I do not think it will wash well: I am afraid it will fray.
c. To rub against.
1884. Jefferies, Red Deer, ii. 29. Dry dark heather continually fraying against my knees.
† 3. trans. To bruise. Also, to deflower. Obs.
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 455. And wt owr strokys we shalle fray hym as he was on ye rode.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1593), 220.
| Whom being then no maid | |
| (For why the God of Delos and of Delphos had her fraid). |
† 4. intr. To clash, come into collision. Obs.
c. 1450. Merlin, 594. Ther myght a man haue sein many a helme hurled on an hepe, and many a shafte and shelde frayen to-geder, and many hauberke rente of double mayle.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 424/2. Whan he sawe the meruaylles that god shewyd by hym, as wel of the trees that by them self were throwen doun to the erthe of eyther parte, also how therthe onelye by frayeng of his staffe was dyched aboute.
II. 5. [A recent adoption from Fr.] trans. To clear, cut through, force (a path, way).
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. iv. 81. The adventurous explorer of these woodland regions had in those good old times to froce his way through the narrow thorny paths, frayed by the elephant and the rhinoceros.
1869. Baring-Gould, Origin Relig. Belief (1878), I. vii. 135. Man had to fray his road through a wilderness of fable before he could reach the truth, and traverse a multitude of intermediary deities before he could conceive a King of gods which, though it is an idea divided from pure monotheism by a gulf, is yet within view of it.
Hence Fraying vbl. sb.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 653.
| Thai … Herd bath stering, and ek speking, | |
| And [alswa fraying] of Armyng. |
