effray

E1F4F4R1A1Y4

verb

To frighten, startle.

OriginMiddle French effrayer →
Scrabble 15
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Meanings

verbeffray (third-person singular simple present effrays, present participle effraying, simple past and past participle effrayed)

present singular third person effrays · participle present effraying · participle past effrayed · past effrayed

  1. obsoleteTo frighten, startle.

    Their dam vpstart, out of her den effraide, / And rushed forth […]

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
fray

Origin

  1. Middle Frencheffrayer
  2. Englisheffray

From Middle French effrayer.

More words from Middle French

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

AffreyAffery
Cite this entry
APA

effray. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/effray

MLA

“effray.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/effray. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “effray,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/effray.

Source: effray on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.