fray

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A scuffle; a brawl. See Synonyms at brawl.
2. n. A heated dispute or contest.
3. v. Archaic To alarm; frighten.
4. v. Archaic To drive away.
5. v. To strain; chafe: repeated noises that fray the nerves.
6. v. To wear away (the edges of fabric, for example) by rubbing.
7. v. To become worn away or tattered along the edges.
8. n. A frayed or threadbare spot, as on fabric.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An affray; a battle; an assault; a quarrel with violence.
2. n. A brawl; a riot; a mêlée.
3. n. A chase; a hunt.
4. n. Synonyms Mêlée, Brawl, etc. See quarrel, n.
5. To put in fear; terrify; frighten; deter by fear.
6. To maltreat; misuse.
7. To contend; combat; fight.
8. To rub; grate.
9. To rub away the surface of; fret, as cloth by wearing, or the skin by friction; especially, to ravel out the edge of, as a piece of stuff, by drawing out threads of the warp so that the threads of the weft make a kind of fringe: in this sense usually with out.
10. To rub against something.
11. To yield to rubbing or fretting; ravel out, as cloth.
12. n. A fret or chafe in cloth, a cord, etc.; a place injured or weakened by rubbing: as, a fray in an angler's line.

Wiktionary

1. v. intransitive To unravel; used particularly for the edge of something made of cloth, or the end of a rope.
2. v. intransitive, figuratively To cause exhaustion, wear out (a person's mental strength).
3. v. transitive (archaic) frighten
4. n. Affray; broil; contest; combat; brawl; melee.
5. n. archaic fright

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An angry quarrel; an affray; contest; combat; broil.
2. v. To frighten; to terrify; to alarm.
3. v. obsolete To bear the expense of; to defray.
4. v. To rub; to wear off, or wear into shreds, by rubbing; to fret, as cloth.
5. v. To rub.
6. v. To wear out or into shreads, or to suffer injury by rubbing, as when the threads of the warp or of the woof wear off so that the cross threads are loose; to ravel.
7. n. A fret or chafe, as in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cause friction
2. v. wear away by rubbing
3. n. a noisy fight