Affray
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack. countable, uncountable
"A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics."
- 2 a noisy fight wordnet
- 3 A tumultuous assault or quarrel. countable, uncountable
- 4 noisy quarrel wordnet
- 5 The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others. countable, uncountable
"The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder."
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- 6 Terror. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"full of ghastly fright and cold affray"
- 1 To startle from quiet; to alarm. archaic, transitive
- 2 To frighten; to scare; to frighten away. archaic, transitive
"That voice doth us affray."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"East and West / he summoned to his throne, and thus his wrath expressed. / "What pride of birth possessed you, Earth and air / without my leave to mingle in affray, / and raise such hubbub in my realm?""
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 fridu (“peace”), Old English friþ (“peace, frith”), Old English frēod (“peace, friendship”), German Friede (“peace”). More at free, friend.