affray
/əˈfɹeɪ/
Meaning
To startle from quiet; to alarm.
To startle from quiet; to alarm.
Terror.
To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
Terror.
To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
Examples
That voice doth us affray.
A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics.
The patient, who had a full view of the skirmish, was so tickled at the affray, that he burst into a laughter, which broke the quinsey, and cured him.
The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.
full of ghastly fright and cold affray
Word Forms
affrays
affraying
affrayed
afray
Etymology
From Middle English affraien (“to terrify, frighten”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”) and Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”) (compare modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfridāre.
The second part of this is in turn from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with Old High German fr