Frain

//ˈfɹeɪn// name, verb

name, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To ask, inquire. dialectal, obsolete, transitive

    "Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ?"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Old French.

Synonyms

All synonyms
demandinquireinquirequestionquestion

Example

More examples

"Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English fraynen, freinen (“to ask”), from Old English freġnan, friġnan (“to ask, inquire, learn”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”). Cognates Cognate with Icelandic fregna (“to ask, inquire”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌽 (fraihnan, “to ask”). Related also to Dutch vragen (“to ask”), German fragen (“to ask”), Norwegian frega (“to ask”), Latin precor (“ask, beseech”), Sanskrit पृच्छति (pṛccháti, “to ask”), Lithuanian prašyti (“to request”), Polish prosić (“to request”).

Etymology 2

From Old French fraisne.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.