affray
/əˈfɹeɪ/
affray verb: to startle from quiet; to alarm.
Verb
affray (third-person singular simple present affrays, present participle affraying, simple past and past participle affrayed)
- To startle from quiet; to alarm.
- To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
- That voice doth us affray.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Noun
affray (countable and uncountable, plural affrays)
- The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
- A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics.2015, 8 November, "Rugby league journalist Gary Carter critically ill after Bethnal Green attack", BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-34755963
- A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
- 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.1847, editorial staff, “Battle With the Hasty Pudding”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 10, page 74
- The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
- The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.
- Terror.
- full of ghastly fright and cold affray1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
affray meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
affray in Tamil
- a sudden assault or quarrel
- தகராறு takarāṟu, ரகளை rakaḷai, கலாட்டா kalāṭṭā
affray in Urdu
- ہنگامہ, لڑائی
affray in Bengali
- দাঙ্গা, কলহ
affray in Malayalam
- തിടുക്കപ്പെടുത്തുക, ഭീഷണിപ്പെടുത്തുക, ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- affray in Kannada
- ಡಿಂಬಾಹವ
- affray in Sanskrit
- डिम्ब ḍimba
Synonyms of affray
Forms of affray
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | affrays |
| present participle | affraying |
| past participle | affrayed |
| past | affrayed |
| alternative form | afray |
| Noun | |
| plural | affrays |
Origin of affray
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.
Words formed from affray
Words that rhyme with affray
Questions about affray
- What does affray mean?
- Affray means to startle from quiet; to alarm.
- What is affray in Tamil?
- Affray in Tamil is தகராறு (takarāṟu), ரகளை (rakaḷai), கலாட்டா (kalāṭṭā). See Affray meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is affray?
- Affray can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce affray?
- Affray is pronounced /əˈfɹeɪ/.
- What is the past tense of affray?
- The past tense of affray is affrayed.
Words near affray in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: affray (page history and authors); affray (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); affray (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); affray (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); affray (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); डिम्ब (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “affray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/affray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.