different between brush vs fray

English

Etymology

From Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar Latin *brustia, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar Latin *bruscia, from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: br?sh, IPA^(key): /b???/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

brush (countable and uncountable, plural brushes)

2. An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.
3. The act of brushing something.
4. A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
5. A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.

   Synonym: corposant
6. (uncountable) Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrubland
   • 1906, Jack London, Before Adam, chapter 12:

     We broke away toward the north, the tribe howling on our track. Across the open spaces we gained, and in the brush they caught up with us, and more than once it was nip and tuck.
7. A short and sometimes occasional encounter or experience.
   • 2013, Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems', The Guardian, 13 September:

     The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.

8. The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
9. (zoology) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
10. (archaic) A short contest, or trial, of speed.
    • 1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage (originally published in Cornhill Magazine

      Mark and Lord Lufton had been boys together, and his lordship knew that Mark in his heart would enjoy a brush across the country quite as well as he himself.

11. (music) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
12. (computer graphics) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
13. (computer graphics) A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.

    Coordinate term: texture

14. (video games) In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
15. (poker, slang) The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
16. (North Wisconsin, uncountable) Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.

Translations

Verb

brush (third-person singular simple present brushes, present participle brushing, simple past and past participle brushed)

1. (transitive) To clean with a brush.

   Brush your teeth.

2. (transitive) To untangle or arrange with a brush.

   Brush your hair.

3. (transitive) To apply with a brush.

   I am brushing the paint onto the walls.

4. (transitive) To remove with a sweeping motion.

   She brushes the flour off your clothes.

   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii^[1]:

     Caliban: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd / With raven's feather from unwholesome fen / Drop on you both! […]

5. (transitive, intransitive) To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.

   Her scarf brushed his skin.

   • Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep / The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave.

   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Further to Fly”, The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.

     Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh.

6. (intransitive) To clean one's teeth by brushing them.
   • 2000, USA Today (volume 129, issues 2662-2673, page 92)

     Of course, Halloween does not have to be completely treatless. Plain chocolate candy is okay, provided you remember to brush afterwards.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• broom
• comb

Anagrams

• Shrub, bruhs, burhs, shrub

Middle English

Noun

brush

1. Alternative form of broche

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?, IPA^(key): /f?e?/
• Rhymes: -e?

Etymology 1

From Middle English fraien, borrowed from Old French frayer, from Latin fric?re, present active infinitive of fric?.

Verb

fray (third-person singular simple present frays, present participle fraying, simple past and past participle frayed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) unravel; used particularly for the edge of something made of cloth, or the end of a rope.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To cause exhaustion, wear out (a person's mental strength).

   (Metaphorical use; nerves are visualised as strings)

3. (transitive, archaic) frighten; alarm

   • And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 63:

     "Besides, all the wit and Philosophy in the world can never demonstrate, that the killing and slaughtering of a Beast is anymore then the striking of a Bush where a Bird's Nest is, where you fray away the Bird, and then seize upon the empty Nest."

   • 1830, Isaac Taylor, The Natural History of Enthusiasm

     the many checks and reverses which belong to the common course of human life , usually fray it away from present scenes

4. (transitive) To bear the expense of; to defray.
   • 1631, Philip Massinger, The Emperor of the East

     The charge of my most curious and costly ingredients frayed, I shall acknowledge myself amply satisfied.

5. (intransitive) To rub.
   • 1808, Walter Scott, Hunting Song

Related terms

• friction
• fricative
• affricate
• dentifrice

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English frai, aphetic variant of affray.

Noun

fray (plural frays)

1. A fight or argument
2. (archaic) Fright.

Related terms

• affray

Translations

Spanish

Etymology

Apocope of fraile (“friar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?ai/, [?f?ai?]

Noun

fray m (plural frayes)

1. friar

Abbreviations

• fr.