to fray

Examples

• All

• And if it's starting to fray, you have to say, hey, my rope is fraying.

  Simon Sinek

• With nations as with households, tempers fray when the money runs out.

  Academic text (1998)

• And what starts to happen is the paper on top of the jigsaw piece starts to fray a little bit.

• Rope they put on me was frayed and broke.

  Red River (1948)

• Tempers are really fraying now, both on and off the field.

  Final Score (2018)

• Her clothes were beginning to fray, stiff with dirt and wrinkled from being slept in.

  Fiction book (1994)

• The ones you're wearing are frayed around the collar.

  Cactus Flower (1969)

• The screen in the window above us is frayed; the paint on the sill is peeling.

  Fiction book (1994)

• Pulitzer's hearing is so oversensitive that slight noises can fray his delicate nerves.

  Fiction book (1992)

• But the law has frayed longstanding bonds between the Mexican state of Sonora and Arizona.

  Academic text (2011)

Synonyms

R

to run

vsto fray

71 7.9

To develop a long narrow line where knitted fabric comes undone

involves edge wear that makes threads separate rather than a long split

F

to frazzle

vsto fray

7.5

To rub something so it becomes damaged at the edges

focuses specifically on edges where threads separate from rubbing

Antonyms

R

repair

352 2.3

Work done to fix something that is broken

S

to strengthen

327 3.0

To make muscles, relationships, or groups stronger

Idioms

D

to dive into the fray

• Informal

7.7

To join a noisy or angry argument and take part in it

Phrasal Verbs

F

to fray at the edges

1 7.2

Gradually becomes weaker and less effective under pressure

How Worn

to fall apart

155 2.8

to tatter

• Archaic

27 5.3

to fray

37 4.2

scuff

8 2.6

Surface Forms

Etymology