fray vs frazzle what difference

what is difference between fray and frazzle

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: frā, IPA^(key): /fɹeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English fraien, borrowed from Old French frayer, from Latin fricāre, present active infinitive of fricō.

Verb

fray (third-person singular simple present frays, present participle fraying, simple past and past participle frayed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) unravel; used particularly for the edge of something made of cloth, or the end of a rope.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To cause exhaustion, wear out (a person’s mental strength).

   (Metaphorical use; nerves are visualised as strings)

3. (transitive, archaic) frighten; alarm

   • And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 63:

     “Besides, all the wit and Philosophy in the world can never demonstrate, that the killing and slaughtering of a Beast is anymore then the striking of a Bush where a Bird’s Nest is, where you fray away the Bird, and then seize upon the empty Nest.”

   • 1830, Isaac Taylor, The Natural History of Enthusiasm

     the many checks and reverses which belong to the common course of human life , usually fray it away from present scenes

4. (transitive) To bear the expense of; to defray.
   • 1631, Philip Massinger, The Emperor of the East

     The charge of my most curious and costly ingredients frayed, I shall acknowledge myself amply satisfied.

5. (intransitive) To rub.
   • 1808, Walter Scott, Hunting Song

Derived terms

Related terms

• friction
• fricative
• affricate
• dentifrice

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English frai, aphetic variant of affray.

Noun

fray (plural frays)

1. A fight or argument
2. (archaic) Fright.

Derived terms

Related terms

• affray

Translations

Spanish

Etymology

Apocope of fraile (“friar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɾai/, [ˈfɾai̯]

Noun

fray m (plural frayes)

1. friar

Synonyms

• fr.

English

Etymology

Originally an East Anglian word. Either from a variant of the now obsolete fazle (“to unravel”), altered due to influence from fray, or from a blend of fazle and fray. fazle comes from earlier fasel, which was inherited from Middle English facelyn (“[of the end of a rope, or of cloth] to unravel”). Middle English facelyn was a verbal derivative of the noun fasylle (“frayed edge”), which was in turn a derivative (with the diminutive suffix -el) of Old English fæs (“fringe, border”), from Proto-West Germanic *fas, from Proto-Germanic *fasōn.

Related to German Faser (“fibre”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfræzl̩/
• Rhymes: -æzəl

Verb

frazzle (third-person singular simple present frazzles, present participle frazzling, simple past and past participle frazzled)

1. (transitive) To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
   • 1887, Joel Chandler Harris, Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches

     Her hair was of a reddish-gray color, and its frazzled and tangled condition suggested that the woman had recently passed through a period of extreme excitement.

2. (transitive) To drain emotionally or physically.

3. (transitive) to burn

Noun

frazzle (plural frazzles)

1. (informal) A burnt fragment; a cinder or crisp.

   The bacon was burned to a frazzle.

2. (informal) The condition or quality of being frazzled; a frayed end.
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous Chapter III

     My fingers are all cut to frazzles.

   • 1886-90, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History

     Gordon had sent word to Lee that he “had fought his corps to a frazzle.

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