different between fray vs tiff

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.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

Originally, a sniff, sniffing; compare Icelandic word for a smell.

Noun

tiff (plural tiffs)

1. A small argument; a petty quarrel.
2. Liquor; especially, a small draught of liquor.

Translations

Verb

tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)

1. (intransitive) To quarrel.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:squabble

   • 1846, Walter Savage Landor, untitled

     She tiff'd at Tim, she ran from Ralph.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English tiffen, Old French tiffer, tifer ("to bedizen"; > Modern French attifer), from Frankish *tipf?n, *tipp?n (“to decorate”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“top, tip”). Compare Dutch tippen (“to clip the points or ends of the hair”), Old Norse tippa (“point, tip”), English tip (noun), Middle High German zipfen (“to prance; skip; sashay; bob; flutter; frisk”).

Verb

tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To deck out; to dress.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of A. Tucker to this entry?)

Etymology 3

Verb

tiff (third-person singular simple present tiffs, present participle tiffing, simple past and past participle tiffed)

1. (British India, intransitive) To have lunch.
   • 1841, The Asiatic journal and monthly register

     Besides that one to which the permanent residence was attached, Mr. Augustus had several outlaying factories, which he visited from time to time, to superintend the manufacture of his indigo; at all of these he had little bungalows, or temporary abodes, where we tiffed and passed the heat of the day.

Related terms

• tiffin

Anagrams

• fift