▪ I. frayed, ppl. a.1 arch.
(freɪd)
[f. fray v.1 + -ed1.]
(The pple. passing into ppl. a.) Afraid, frightened.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5814 A neddir it was, and he was fraid. 1330 [see afraid 1]. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 580 The fute men..On frayt folk set strakis sad and sayr. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxix. 206 All the countre was so frayed, that euery man drue to the fortresses. a 1555 Lyndesay Tragedy 185 Be sey and land sic reif without releif, Quhilk to report my frayit hart afferis. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 795 The Ape is as fraid thereof, as it is of the Snail. 1827 Hood Mids. Fairies vii, Like a fray'd bird in the grey owlet's beak. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xii. (1878) 238 With a curve in her form like the neck of a frayed horse. |
| Proverb. 1534 Whitinton Tullyes Offices i. (1540) 36 More frayde than hurte. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 9 He shall let fall all, And be more fraid then hurt. |
b. quasi-n. in phr. for fraid = for fear. (Cf. ferd n.2)
| 1536 Gray in State P. Hen. VIII, II. 355 Duetie to my Maister, and force, constraynyth me therto, for frayd of worse to comme herafter. 1889 N.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., For fraid..‘for fear’. |
Hence ˈfrayedly adv., ˈfrayedness.
| 1530 Palsgr. 222/2 Fraydnesse, esmoy. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 347 All for frayitnes he fell in extasie. 1570 Henry's Wallace iv. 244 Frayitlie [MS. ferdely] thai rais, that war in to thai waynis. |
▪ II. frayed, ppl. a.2
(freɪd)
[f. fray v.2 + -ed1.]
Rubbed, worn by rubbing, ravelled out. Also with out.
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles v. iii, The ivy twigs were torn and fray'd. 1824 Landor Johnson & Tooke Wks. 1846 I. 155/1 The leather..will look queerly in its patches on the frayed satin. 1859 Tennyson Enid 296 His dress a suit of fray'd magnificence. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, The frayed ends of his dress. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 107 Not good it is to harp on the frayed string. 1884 Western Daily Press 25 Apr. 7/5 The front of the bonnet is composed of frayed silk. 1889 John Bull 2 Mar. 149/3 The satin train had a thick ruche of frayed-out silk bordering it all round. |
| fig. 1896 Daily News 11 June 3/1 This novelty is getting just a trifle frayed at the edges. 1934 Discovery Dec 345/1 Super-sensitivity to sounds normally arises with frayed nerves due to worry or illness. 1966 J. Porter Sour Cream i. 7 The grandiose schemes of my youth had got more than a bit frayed round the edges. |
Hence ˈfrayedness, frayed condition.
| 1893 Cassell's Fam. Mag. June 500/2 He hands over [the rope] to us in all its frayedness. |