fray

verb/freɪ/

Frequency rank: #9,737 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

to become worn or frayed at the edges; to cause stress or irritation.

Illustration for the English word “fray”

Example sentence

After years of heavy use, the edges of the old carpet began to fray.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 9,701–9,800