Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To wear away along the edges; fray.
  • intransitive verb To exhaust physically or emotionally.
  • intransitive verb To become worn away along the edges.
  • intransitive verb To become exhausted physically or emotionally.
  • noun A frayed or tattered condition.
  • noun A condition of exhaustion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A shred; a tatter; a frayed rag; a frayed or worn-out condition: as, to be worn to a frazzle.
  • To ravel out, as the edge of a fabric; unravel; fray.
  • To wear, as by hard usage, into shreds, rags, or tatters; fray out; tear to pieces.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. & U. S. To fray; to wear or pull into tatters or tag ends; to tatter; -- used literally and figuratively.
  • noun Prov. Eng. & U. S. The act or result of frazzling; the condition or quality of being frazzled; the tag end; a frayed-out end.
  • noun a state of extreme exhaustion; -- often used in the phrase worn to a frazzle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To fray or wear down, especially at the edges.
  • verb To drain emotionally or physically

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a state of extreme exhaustion
  • verb exhaust physically or emotionally
  • verb wear away by rubbing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps a blend of fray and dialectal fazzle, to unravel (from Middle English facelyn, to fray, from fasel, frayed edge, probably diminutive of fas, rootlets, from Old English fæs).]

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