Other forms: frayed, fraying
To fray is to come apart in loose threads at the edge. Frayed cuffs, the rope frayed, fraying at the edges.
It is what woven material does when the cut edge is not finished, which is why hems and seams exist. Figuratively, tempers fray and nerves fray under strain, and fraying at the edges describes anything starting to fail gradually. There is a separate noun fray meaning a fight — join the fray, enter the fray — which is a shortening of affray and unrelated in feeling.
1verbfrayTo come apart in loose threads at the edge.
“The cuffs of his old shirt had started to fray.”
2nounfightA fight or a contest.
“Just when the argument seemed over, his brother joined the fray.”
fray is a wearing apart, or a fight.
Old French fraier meant to rub or wear away, from Latin fricare, to rub. The fight sense is a different word, a clipping of affray.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰreyH-
French
frayer
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰreyH- — to cut
Latin
fricāre
Old French
fraier
Middle English
fraien — to beat so as to cause bruising, to bruise; to crush; to rub; to wear, wear off
English, today
fray
Built from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English fraien (“to beat so as to cause bruising, to bruise; to crush; to rub; to wear, wear off”), borrowed from Old French fraier, freier, freiier (modern French frayer (“to clear, open up (a path, etc.); (figuratively) to find one’s way through (something); (obsolete) to rub”)), from Latin fricāre, the present active infinitive of fricō (“to chafe; to rub”), an intensive form of friō (“to break into pieces, crumble; to rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰreyH- (“to cut”). Sense 1.2 (“to force or make (a path, way, etc.) through”) is derived from modern French frayer: see above. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA