frain

present singular third person frains · participle present fraining · participle past frained · past frained · alternative frein · alternative frane · alternative obsolete fraine · alternative obsolete frayn · alternative obsolete frayne · alternative obsolete freyne

1. dialectalobsoletetransitiveTo ask, inquire.

   Theyr myndes disdayne: Gods actes to frain …

   1555, Henry Parker, The Exposition and Declaration of the Psalme Deus ultionum dominus, XXVIII.

   5 more examples

   Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ?

   1522, John Skelton, Why come ye nat to Courte

   And so answerd ever when so the said Umphra frayned the said Thomas; and otherwaies this examinate never hard the said Thomas speak anything of himself to any bodye, duringe the spaic of an hower or more, that this examinate was with the said Thomas.

   c. 1574, William Strothers (clerk), Deposition of Thomas Hunter, in "The Will of Humphrey Hopper", in Depositions and Other Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham: Extending from 1311 to the Reign of Elizabeth

   I, musing, frain'd her meaning: she / Her meaning thus did tell.

   1592, William Warner, Albion's England. Book VII

   Nor far had spurr'd the warrior, ere a crew Of hinds and sun-burnt woodmen met his view, Frayn'd by the knight, they told, a beauteous maid, Who, loudly shrieking, call'd on heav'n for aid, [...]

   1803, William Stuart Rose, transl., Amadis de Gaula, A Poem in Three Books, page 160

   But Jesus stood before the count; yea the count frayned him, quothing, thou is king of the Jews? but Jesus quoth to him, thou quoths.

   1807, Samuel Henshall, translating "The Durham Book" (c. 900); The Gothic Gospel of Saint Matthew

1. A surname from Old French.