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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

affray.

To startle from quiet; to alarm.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/əˈfɹeɪ/

  1. To startle from quiet; to alarm.

    archaic · transitive

  2. To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.

    archaic · transitive
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/əˈfɹeɪ/

  1. The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A tumultuous assault or quarrel.

    countable · uncountable

  3. 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.

  4. Terror.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.