FRAY . This obsolete Eng. verb is found in Zechariah 1:21 and 1Ma 14:12 (‘every man sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to fray them’); and ‘fray away’ occurs in Deuteronomy 28:26 , Jeremiah 7:33 , Sir 22:20 (‘whoso casteth a stone at the birds frayeth them away’). It is a shortened form of ‘afray,’ of which the ptcp. ‘afraid’ is still in use.