Fraxinus excelsior is the European ash; F. Americana, the white ash; F. sambucifolia, the black ash or
water ash.
Fray
(Fray) n. [Abbreviated from affray.] Affray; broil; contest; combat.
Who began this bloody fray?
Shak. Fray
(Fray), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Frayed (frad); p. pr. & vb. n. Fraying.] [See 1st Fray, and cf. Affray.]
To frighten; to terrify; to alarm. I. Taylor.
What frays ye, that were wont to comfort me affrayed?
Spenser. Fray
(Fray), v. t. [Cf. OF. fraier. See Defray, 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. Fray
(Fray), v. t. [OF. freier, fraier, froier, to rub. L. fricare; cf. friare to crumble, E. friable; perh. akin
to Gr. chri`ein to anoint, chri^sma an anointing, Skr. gh&rsdotsh to rub, scratch. Cf. Friction.] To
rub; to wear off, or wear into shreds, by rubbing; to fret, as cloth; as, a deer is said to fray her head.
Fray
(Fray), v. i.
1. To rub.
We can show the marks he made
When 'gainst the oak his antlers frayed.
Sir W. Scott. 2. To wear out or into shreads, or to suffer injury by rubbing, as when the threads of the warp or of the
woof wear off so that the cross threads are loose; to ravel; as, the cloth frays badly.
A suit of frayed magnificience.
tennyson. Fray
(Fray), n. A fret or chafe, as in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.
Fraying
(Fray"ing), n. (Zoöl.) The skin which a deer frays from his horns. B. Jonson.
