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frayed
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

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  • She likes frayed jeans.
  • I'm not trusting my life to that frayed rope!
    frayed = showing wear
  • The town wharf, draped in frayed ropes and old pelicans, jutted into the small bay, whose water, when calm, reflected the reds and yellows of shrimp boats.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • The dishes were chipped and the blankets frayed and no amount of beating could remove their musty smell.   (source)
  • As she pulled on her red jacket and tied the frayed and knotted laces of her shoes, she thought about it.   (source)
  • There was nothing in the room, just a frayed rug, a few dishes, a pair of mattresses, and a lantern.   (source)
  • The next morning I met Dinitia in front of the pool entrance, my thrift-shop one-piece rolled inside my frayed gray towel.   (source)
  • Sickened and starving, his will a fraying wire, Louie had only the faint hope of the war's end, and rescue, to keep him going.   (source)
    fraying = coming unraveled
  • Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, sorted new students into the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin).   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • I could feel things unraveling around me. All the fraying edges of the dream world.   (source)
    fraying = coming apart (figurative use)
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show 42 more with this conextual meaning
  • A blue shirt, a little frayed around the edges.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • You certainly can't wander around the dining room with fraying collars or cuffs.   (source)
  • Its sail hung skewed and fraying, its sides were patched.   (source)
  • Three frayed electrical leads sprout from the top.   (source)
  • But when I reached his study—low-ceilinged, gloomy with books, black leather chairs, a pipe rack, frayed brown rug, a room which students rarely entered except for a reprimand—I saw on the pad not an operator's number from my home town, but one which seemed to interrupt the beating of my heart.   (source)
    frayed = showed wear with threads beginning to separate and hang loose
  • This wind pressed his grey shirt against his chest so that he noticed—in this new mood of comprehension—how the folds were stiff like cardboard, and unpleasant; noticed too how the frayed edges of his shorts were making an uncomfortable, pink area on the front of his thighs.   (source)
  • Father is walking around in frayed trousers, and his tie is also showing signs of wear and tear.   (source)
  • She's inspecting the fraying border of one of her dish towels.   (source)
    fraying = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • Already frayed on the cushion, wobbly in the struts, its wooden legs scratched, no one except Grandma ever sat in it.   (source)
  • I am a flag fraying against the sky.   (source)
  • The table service is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that it must be of immense value.  The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something like them in Hampton Court, but they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten.   (source)
    frayed = showed wear with threads beginning to separate and hang loose
  • There were traces about it of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced, so that none, or very little, of the glitter was left.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.   (source)
    frayed = showed wear with threads beginning to separate and hang loose
  • He was looking down now, playing with the frayed edges of the straw mat.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with straws beginning to separate or hang loose
  • His will to live, resilient through all of the trials on the raft, was beginning to fray.   (source)
    fray = show wear
  • Gray grunge, frayed fishing tackle, and half-crushed beer cans covered the boat floor.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.   (source)
  • He wore a threadbare chapan worn to frayed shreds and a dirt-crusted turban.   (source)
  • The hills and trees before me, the worms and lions, stones and tender buds, Daedalus' loom, all wavered as if they were a fraying dream.   (source)
    fraying = coming apart (figuratively)
  • Thus, the merchant who gambles away his savings will hold on to his finer suits until they fray, and tell anecdotes from the halls of the private clubs where his membership has long since lapsed.   (source)
    fray = show wear
  • Nothing had changed—the frayed red curtains, the armchairs with the upholstery worn thin, the hideous mud-colored carpet.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • His bright, indignant eyes swept from my battered gray cap, down the frayed sweater and paint-stained pants to a pair of clodhoppers.   (source)
    frayed = showed wear with threads beginning to separate and hang loose
  • We were sitting on the ribbed wooden floor, on frayed, stained blankets used to wrap furniture, feeling for one another with our hands.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • She has read Around the World in Eighty Days until the Braille is soft and fraying; for this year's birthday, her father has bought her an even fatter book: Dumas's The Three Musketeers.   (source)
  • Now, having run out of things to say, she was standing at her desk with her frayed shawl clasped around her shoulders.   (source)
  • She picked up the frayed knapsack, made of canvas tough enough for a lifetime and covered in small pockets and secret compartments.   (source)
  • That night she and her father wind up the twisting staircase and go to bed side by side on the same lumpy bed in the same sixth-floor bedroom with the fraying silk wallpaper.   (source)
  • Then in 1921, confronted with a backlog of fraying sheets, tattered curtains, and torn napkins—which no one had any intention of replacing— the hotel had promoted Marina, and once again a trustworthy seam was being sewn within the walls of the hotel.   (source)
  • We followed him through dim, grimy hallways where barefoot children dressed in frayed sweaters ambled around.   (source)
  • When there was a fire, it was because there had been an accident—someone had left a dishtowel too close to an electric burner on a stove, or a cord had frayed and a spark had flown out and ignited curtains.   (source)
    frayed = worn out so the insulation was no longer intact
  • The volume so worn, the covers had long since gone, the pages held together by two frayed rubber bands.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear
  • He leaves me in a wide, windowless corridor crammed with people sitting on metallic folding chairs set along the walls, others on the thin frayed carpet.   (source)
    frayed = showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
  • There were two mattresses on opposite sides of the room, a worn Herati rug with frayed edges in between, a three-legged stool, and a wooden table in the corner where Hassan did his drawings.   (source)
  • Her jeans are fraying at the hem and have a safety pin through the fly where they're missing a button.   (source)
  • "It is very pretty, madam," said he, gravely examining it; "but I do not think it will wash well; I am afraid it will fray."   (source)
  • He wore shabby black clothes, with holes at the elbows of his coat and frayed trousers.   (source)
  • he flung his beggar's sack across his shoulders—
    torn and tattered, slung from a fraying rope.   (source)
  • He threw his beggar's sack across his shoulders—
    torn and tattered, slung from a fraying rope—   (source)
  • ...and gave him a staff and beggar's sack,
    torn and tattered, slung from a fraying rope.   (source)
  • my suitors, now that King Odysseus is no more,
    go slowly, keen as you are to marry me, until
    I can finish off this web ….
    so my weaving won't all fray and come to nothing.
    This is a shroud for old lord Laertes, for that day
    when the deadly fate that lays us out at last will take him down.   (source)
    fray = wear away so threads begin to separate or hang loose
  • my suitors, now that King Odysseus is no more,
    go slowly, keen as you are to marry me, until
    I can finish off this web ….
    so my weaving won't all fray and come to nothing.   (source)
  • my suitors, now that King Odysseus is no more,
    go slowly, keen as you are to marry me, until
    I can finish off this web ….
    so my weaving won't all fray and come to nothing.   (source)
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show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • After waiting 90 minutes, my temper began to fray.
    fray = become emotionally strained
  • The sight was a welcome relief for my frayed nerves.   (source)
    frayed = emotionally strained
  • Edwards's nerves felt frayed now as he watched the jet coming in.   (source)
  • Every morning it's the same: the Americans ever closer, the Germans fraying at the seams.   (source)
    fraying = becoming emotionally strained
  • "You've got until sunrise," said Magnus, temper visibly fraying.   (source)
  • He looked like he was fraying at the edges.   (source)
  • His nerves are frayed.   (source)
    frayed = emotionally strained
  • That was before we knew about the fraying wires in his skull.   (source)
    fraying = becoming emotionally strained
  • I tried to stay calm, but the way he spat the word out—Blue—rankled my already frayed nerves.   (source)
    frayed = emotionally strained
  • His voice trailed off, but I picked up the frayed ends of his thought all the same—how could I not?   (source)
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show 1 more with this conextual meaning
  • Your patience would fray, you'd soon head for home ….   (source)
    fray = to strain emotionally, or to become emotionally strained
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show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • The special forces operation put the US back into the political fray in the Middle East.
  • Hans Hubermann entered the fray.   (source)
    the fray = noisy quarrel (argument)
  • Let the Commies and the Nazis kill each other off— they'll both jump into the fray soon enough.   (source)
    the fray = fight or battle
  • On the thirteenth of April 1904, with Port Arthur under attack, Makarov led his battleships into the fray and drove the Japanese fleet back into the Yellow Sea.   (source)
  • Without them I wouldn't be able to jump back into the fray with my usual composure.   (source)
    the fray = fight or struggle
  • Over the next twelve hours, chaos continued to reign on Frobozz as every gunter in the OASIS scrambled to reach the planet and join the fray.†   (source)
  • Across the room Harry saw Tonks fall from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat and Bellatrix, triumphant, running back towards the fray.†   (source)
  • Her frown deepened when she discovered the Captain of the Guard smirking as they walked into the fray of the readying company.†   (source)
  • A gang of kids, little thieves in training, flutters through the fray with sticky, searching fingers.†   (source)
  • Thomas carefully got into position and followed suit, shooting into the fray of dancing electricity that now crackled on the far side of the doors.†   (source)
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  • Jyck vaulted onto a horse and galloped bareback into the fray.†   (source)
  • He hurtled into the fray, snatching up a sun dragon in each claw.†   (source)
  • She waded into the fray and whacked Mr. Klaus over the head with Mary Ann.†   (source)
  • The guards lift me up above the fray, where I continue to thrash as I'm conveyed over the crush of people.†   (source)
  • As usual, he took the point position himself, determined to be the first into the fray if, as he fervently hoped, a fray developed.†   (source)
  • A globule of indigo fire struck the ground in the midst of the fray, bursting into a fountain of molten drops that dissipated like sun-warmed dew.†   (source)
  • The medical staff tried to help the wounded get back into the fray.†   (source)
  • By half-past two they were all ready for the fray.†   (source)
  • He willingly ran out into the fray for me, for all of us.†   (source)
  • ; NO TO SUFFRAGE; KEEP THE FAIRER SEX ABOVE THE FRAY!†   (source)
  • If he has a place to go, other than Lamp, and other than his apartment, it would get him out of the fray, give him some privacy and a purpose.†   (source)
  • I couldn't imagine having to discuss the divorce with Rand and Marybeth, as they certainly would insert themselves into the fray.†   (source)
  • Sammy cursed for a while, or left the house, or threw himself into the fray.†   (source)
  • His friends and Teague joined the fray, trying to reel the woman back in without getting cut.†   (source)
  • As he raced up the steps to the school, he was vaguely aware of two other patrol officers bucking the chief's commands and joining him in the fray.†   (source)
  • The Mask removes himself from the fray, rubbing his jaw.†   (source)
  • Breaking free of the crowd, he veered toward Lance when all at once a girl stepped forward into the fray.†   (source)
  • In the week following her homecoming, she had spent most of her time in her room, out of the fray and away from the limelight.†   (source)
  • The ship, intuitive as ever, called upon her unique motive power and made full speed away from the fray.†   (source)
  • 'Don't let him bite his tongue off,' a short sergeant near Yossarian advised shrewdly, and a seventh man threw himself into the fray to wrestle with the ill lieutenant's face.†   (source)
  • Grandfathers pretended to be above the fray, and were just "cute" with their affection.†   (source)
  • While John masters the fierce intimacies of a freshman dorm, Zayd seems to stand above the fray.†   (source)
  • Colonel Rall, who had been rousted from his bed and was quickly on horseback and in command in the midst of the fray, ordered a charge.†   (source)
  • The situation did not improve when Ekström joined the fray at the 9:00 meeting.†   (source)
  • If Aamon and Rashaverak are winning, however, Lilith can join the fray and tip the balance at a critical moment.†   (source)
  • And they imagined that they were singing to fellow officers fresh from the fray.†   (source)
  • … They do so not as scientists watching from above the fray… but simply as fellow gladiators down in the arena—passionate and opinionated, like their adversaries.†   (source)
  • His guards had gone to join in the fray.†   (source)
  • He never arrived when I was healthy, glowing, and eager for the fray.†   (source)
  • Martha's joined the fray.†   (source)
  • Bruenor's group, now in their fighting "v" formation, rushed back into the fray.†   (source)
  • Two of them took him down and another two jumped into the fray.†   (source)
  • Meanwhile Angeline picked herself up and joined the fray.†   (source)
  • (Hiking himself up on a window ledge) I'm scouting myself an observation post To watch the fray.†   (source)
  • I drew my blade and leaped into the fray.†   (source)
  • Many a time my husband stood aside unable to face the fray: if I had not reproached him his distaste of the whole procedure would have led him to starvation.†   (source)
  • Jason didn't really understand, but he nodded, and Will and Nico dashed off into the fray.   (source)
    the fray = a noisy fight or other exciting situation
  • The policy of non-intervention was a sound one and should be adopted immediately, as Canadian citizens should not be asked to risk their lives in this foreign fray.   (source)
    fray = fight or battle
  • So why didn't you join in the fray?   (source)
    the fray = fight
  • My personal guard charges through the fray, his gun at the ready.†   (source)
  • The officer motioned to two other guards, and they followed him as he ran toward the fray.†   (source)
  • Once blood was shed, the wildlings would join the fray.†   (source)
  • A good Roman should be in the fray, gutting his enemy with spear and sword like a civilized man!†   (source)
  • He found the rakshasa in the midst of the fray, battling several of the malakhim.†   (source)
  • In the thickest part of the fray, Jon saw Mance standing tall in his stirrups.†   (source)
  • He gets off a solid punch to each of them, but another joins the fray.†   (source)
  • More goblins poured into the fray, now joined by ogres and verbeeg.†   (source)
  • Loosing another howl, he dove back into the fray.†   (source)
  • This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me.†   (source)
  • Crookshanks had joined the fray; both sets of front claws had sunk themselves deep into Harry's arm; Harry threw him off, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's wand — "NO YOU DON'T!" roared Harry, and he aimed a kick at Crookshanks that made the cat leap aside, spitting; Harry snatched up his wand and turned "Get out of the way!" he shouted at Ron and Hermione.†   (source)
  • As Harry plunged after them, one of the fighters detached themselves from the fray and flew at him: it was the werewolf, Fenrir.†   (source)
  • Maven's face swirls in the memories, making him stand out against the fray, but Elara pushes him away.†   (source)
  • Then Glaedr had Saphira join the fray, sometimes in opposition to Eragon and sometimes in support of him, for as the elder dragon said, You must be as skilled in this as Eragon, Brightscales.†   (source)
  • The man had charged forward and leaped into the fray, taking down half the people trying to get to Mark.†   (source)
  • Max hurried toward the fray, trying to reach Bob, who was now surrounded and straining under the weight of four vyes that clung to him, sinking their teeth into his flesh and wrenching their heads from side to side like feeding sharks.†   (source)
  • Eragon followed the fray with breathless anticipation, awed by the ants' bravery and how they continued to fight in spite of injuries that would incapacitate a human.†   (source)
  • Of the part Adams had played in the action, Tucker was to speak warmly, and later confirm how, at the height of the fray, he had discovered Adams "among my marines accoutered as one of them and in the act of defense.†   (source)
  • He also noticed that during the fray, several of the archers had descended from the roofs to fight on horseback with them.†   (source)
  • Nudge jumped high in the air, whipping out her wings to hover below the electrified net but above the fray.†   (source)
  • Instead of throwing himself into the fray, he fought Vanir from a distance, dodging, sidestepping, and doing everything possible to avoid triggering another fit.†   (source)
  • The rest of the fray lasted only minutes, as the dragons were pretty much impossible to defend against, much less attack with any success.†   (source)
  • He wondered how many men old Crowfood would bring to the fray, and how many swords Amolf Karstark would be able to conjure up.†   (source)
  • A host of vyes fled before the kirin as they crashed back into the fray, scattering like jackals before a lion.†   (source)
  • Fourteen years later, in 1997, citing the continuing "fierce interest in language usage," the magazine returned to the fray with "The War That Never Ends," an article by writer Mark Halpern, blasting Nunberg and other descriptivist grammarians, who "suppose that language is an entity with its own laws of development, or natural destiny, and that prescriptivist grammarians are trying to interfere with the course of that natural destiny."†   (source)
  • Trina was reaching for Deedee; she grabbed her and pulled her into a fierce hug, leaping out of the fray just as more people rained down from above.†   (source)
  • Chapter 65 — THE HEART OF THE FRAY.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Nightwing marches into the fray.†   (source)
  • Never came up… Wulfgar hoped that he had hit the wounded giant in the tunnel hard enough to keep it out of the fray for a while — he would be in a tight spot indeed if it carne up behind him then.†   (source)
  • In the distance they could see the descending form of the Winter King, who was moving to join the fray.†   (source)
  • The great dragon showed them how to reach a northern inlet where the Indigo Dragon would most likely be waiting, far removed from the fray at Paralon, and then saw their provisions for the ship restocked from his own stores.†   (source)
  • As always, the waiting and the uncertainty were the most difficult parts for him to bear, and he wished he were already in the midst of the fray, where he would have no time to worry about what might happen.†   (source)
  • Cassius and Glensather, in their customary positions upon the wall, pondered the unexpected turn of events, undecided as to whether or not they should release their forces into the fray.†   (source)
  • Bert and Aven were arguing as to strategy (she advocating more offensive maneuvers, he advocating flight), and John had just reemerged to take up a sword and join the fray when a well-aimed cannonball shattered the mainsail mast and ended any debate.†   (source)
  • Saphira waded into the fray to his left—batting the soldiers into the air with her enormous paws, lashing them with her spiked tail, and biting and killing them with a shake of her head—while, to his right, Arya was a blur of motion, every swing of her sword signaling death for another servant of the Empire.†   (source)
  • He now was destroyed; but Gothmog the lieutenant of Morgul had flung them into the fray; Easterlings with axes, and Variags of Khand.†   (source)
  • Then Beorn stooped and lifted Thorin, who had fallen pierced with spears, and bore him out of the fray.†   (source)
  • He felt calm and cool, glad the fray was over.†   (source)
  • RAGUENEAU (to Cyrano): Know you who might be the hero of the fray?†   (source)
  • You enter the fray unarmed against such intellectual chicanery.†   (source)
  • Then Snap, becoming solicitous for its welfare, jumped into the fray.†   (source)
  • Fielding, what has prevented you from standing up?" said the Collector, entering the fray at last.†   (source)
  • THE CADET (rising and coming down): The story of the fray!†   (source)
  • The dogs dashed forward to join the fray, whatever it was; and not long were we in doubt.†   (source)
  • Pavel Petrovitch came into the drawing-room, all ready for the fray, irritable and determined.†   (source)
  • Aouda had escaped unharmed, and Fix alone bore marks of the fray in his black and blue bruise.†   (source)
  • He rushes to the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER IV —With much more dismay, I view the fight, than those that make the fray.†   (source)
  • Heyward tore the weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly toward the fray.†   (source)
  • Old Juno, staunch to the last, was foremost in the fray.†   (source)
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  • He passed Edgar and took up the frayed lead.†   (source)
  • It was white and frayed.†   (source)
  • "I need a boy," the kapo says, playing with the fraying edge of his Russian army shirt.†   (source)
  • Of course, at that time our relationship was frayed almost beyond repair, and it felt like a minor victory every time we got her home from school in one piece, let alone into the kitchen for a mundane event like a family meal or an evening of homework.†   (source)
  • Two beds, a washstand, and a wooden trunk with frayed leather straps nearly filled it.†   (source)
  • His father was so close that Eddie could see the whiskers on his face and the frayed end of his cigar.†   (source)
  • Winky was twisting the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers.†   (source)
  • They wore sweaters with frayed sleeves, ragged jeans whose knees had worn down to strings, coats patched with duct tape.†   (source)
  • One of them—a dark-skinned girl with hair cut almost to her scalp—held a large frayed burlap sack.†   (source)
  • I glanced down to see that the two pieces of material that joined at the side of my right leg had torn apart, sending frayed pieces of silk thread shooting upward in an ungainly fringe.†   (source)
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  • He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.†   (source)
  • It's wrinkled and a cuff is already fraying.†   (source)
  • Something in Chaol began fraying as Celaena raised her bloodied face to look at Cain.†   (source)
  • There was a frayed weariness in the old man's words, as though they had long since worn out.†   (source)
  • On the wall behind her, a painted wisteria vine frays into a tangled modernist spray of color that makes von Rumpel uneasy.†   (source)
  • I reach past the frayed back pockets of the jeans that conform to the butt that I'm not looking at and pick up the dry nightie.†   (source)
  • He had hair like frayed rope and he smelled too strong, because he was a meat-eater.†   (source)
  • I tore the LED bulbs out of one and left the two frayed power wires very close together.†   (source)
  • It was Aria Montgomery, wearing a tight, faded red University of Iceland T-shirt, a frayed denim mini, and red John Fluevog cowboy boots.†   (source)
  • She was small for her age, as she had been on Earth, and she wore a calico dress that was frayed at the hem and the cuffs.†   (source)
  • She still remembers their very first date, liking the slightly untamed look of his hair as he'd approached her at the bar, the dark pine stubble on his cheeks, the shirt he'd worn with green stripes and thinner stripes of lavender, the collar beginning to fray.†   (source)
  • You can imagine the scene: a dark-paneled room, an artfully frayed Persian carpet, row upon row of leather-bound legal volumes, oil paintings of Mr. Mudge and Mr. Rose on the wall.†   (source)
  • The prospect of bloodshed has my nerves all a-fray ….†   (source)
  • Matt's frayed bit of string he cast aside.†   (source)
  • Eleanor climbed onto the bed with her and helped comb and braid their frayed hair.†   (source)
  • Holes frayed her glove where she'd tried to catch her fall.†   (source)
  • "I think I'm going to have to get him to give me a new one soon; I'm already fraying this one.†   (source)
  • Instead, in a hollowed-out place, there was a white ball of silk with a few frayed strands sticking out here and there.†   (source)
  • The frayed laces.†   (source)
  • No longer did it seem as though I were clinging to survival by a fraying thread.†   (source)
  • The water came up to the frayed legs of his shorts.†   (source)
  • Artemis's patience was beginning to fray.†   (source)
  • His favorite pair has frayed cuffs and a small tear in the rear.†   (source)
  • His temper was like a vicious animal on a frayed leash.†   (source)
  • Eragon's temper was frayed.†   (source)
  • Two frayed holes in the back gave a generous view of his buttocks, but that was all right.†   (source)
  • With a mighty crack the frayed rope snapped high into the air, and the entire gondola slewed over.†   (source)
  • She took it to the beach one day and her mother scolded her for using "best things" instead of the green towel with frayed ends.†   (source)
  • She was wearing a long, gauzy skirt and a big wool sweater fraying at the cuffs.†   (source)
  • She was about sixty, with long white hair, full and frayed, pulled into a ponytail.†   (source)
  • There were dark smudges under his eyes, the frayed edges of somebody who hadn't slept in a while.†   (source)
  • I threw away candle stubs , laminated placemats, frayed pot holders.†   (source)
  • Frayed cables began whipping around the carriage, thrashing like snakes.†   (source)
  • Above from the crab apple tree the frayed end of the rope swung gently.†   (source)
  • He had dim eyes and two buttons missing on his frayed maroon coat.†   (source)
  • One by one the stars were winking out of existence, and the moon was beginning to fray at the edges.†   (source)
  • Clarissa Fray.†   (source)
  • Ben was sitting on a stump, huddled in his frayed brown cloak.†   (source)
  • I find only the frayed end of a seat belt and a broken buckle.†   (source)
  • Her hair was short and frayed at the ends, as if it had been carelessly chopped by dull scissors.†   (source)
  • "Are they too tight?" he asked, his brusque tone frayed by a note of sympathy that made Clarke's chest ache.†   (source)
  • Wrapping twine hung from it like a frayed decoration.†   (source)
  • My nerves felt frayed and exposed.†   (source)
  • But at that moment, my faith was hanging by a tattered thread and fraying fast.†   (source)
  • But for me at least, this non-appearance of Hailsham students just added to a feeling that Hailsham was now far away in the past, and that the ties binding our old crowd were fraying.†   (source)
  • Wearing a handlebar mustache and calf-high caulk boots, frayed suspenders and woolen long Johns, he'd labored in the service of the Port Jefferson Mill Company for four and a half years.†   (source)
  • He began to sink into a rapidly fraying gentility, punctuated with a few of the white-collar occupations available to black people, regardless of their noble bloodlines, in America: desk clerk at a colored hotel in Chicago, insurance agent, traveling salesman for a cosmetics firm catering to blacks.†   (source)
  • One of the few relics of my father's study, it was surrounded by a copper bell which held the light bulb, and from which a frayed, tiger-colored cord ran down the length of the metal stand to a socket in the wall.†   (source)
  • The frayed seams between the patches were the most deadly spaces, and to be avoided at all costs.†   (source)
  • It was a box about as long as my arm, wrapped in heavy paper and tied up with frayed twine.†   (source)
  • Her fingers dug into his shoulders, his hips. her hands squeezing then gliding to fray the taut line of his control.†   (source)
  • I piled all the palm fronds, frayed by the wind, in one place; sticks of wet driftwood in another.†   (source)
  • In the world of tb control, experts were still wrangling about mdr treatment, a fray in which journal articles were the principal weapons.†   (source)
  • She had on a black skirt that was frayed at the hem, a worn-out black, mid-length leather jacket, rivet belt, heavy Doc Marten boots, and horizontally striped, green-and-red knee socks.†   (source)
  • I was intrigued by her strange, flat-toed shoes, badly frayed, worn down by the boards.†   (source)
  • The small living area sported scuffed pine flooring and cedar wall planking with just enough room for a frayed plaid couch and a pair of rocking chairs.†   (source)
  • He was very tired, Yellin was, and his nerves long past frayed.†   (source)
  • The Lett began fray out the tobacco into the glass.†   (source)
  • Whatever embroidery had once been on it had long since unraveled; the brim was frayed and curled tight as a fiddlehead.†   (source)
  • On top of these were decorative so frays, oilcloths imprinted with bright flower patterns.†   (source)
  • The frayed end had become entangled in a fair-sized dead limb.†   (source)
  • We were instructed to repair the garments, but we discovered that most of these jerseys were frayed beyond repair.†   (source)
  • The rope frays.†   (source)
  • They approached the frayed outer edge of the Mount Elgon rain forest, passing by fingers and islands of trees, and they passed the Mount Elgon Lodge, an English inn built in the earlier part of the century, now falling into disrepair, its walls cracked and its paint peeling off in the sun and rain.†   (source)
  • Her nerves were frayed, her stomach roiling with stress.†   (source)
  • Soon one of the nailheads was almost out of sight under the frayed edges.†   (source)
  • Papi slept in the living room, first on a carpet whose fraying threads kept sticking to his shaved head, and then on a mattress he salvaged from a neighbor.†   (source)
  • She was exasperated by his mugs of coffee at five in the morning, the disorder of his workshop, his frayed blanket, and his custom of sitting in the street door at dusk.†   (source)
  • The wallet, getting frayed with use, a birthday gift from her mother last year.†   (source)
  • He picked free a strand of the frayed rope and pulled on it.†   (source)
  • He was just repairing a cinch that had begun to fray.†   (source)
  • As War Admiral walked to the line alongside the flagman and starter Cassidy, Woolf worked to fray the Triple Crown winner's famously delicate nerves.†   (source)
  • We pulled lengthwise at the material from the end so the burlap frayed.†   (source)
  • The glow softens the sharp lines of her profile into something muted, like the fraying paper edges of a well-loved book.†   (source)
  • Somewhere along the line, the string on my cross started fraying and coming apart, so I took it off.†   (source)
  • The rope was long, frayed, knotted, and affixed somehow to the underside of the bridge some forty feet above them.†   (source)
  • "You are the rich man?" he asked, looking doubtfully at Mortenson's frayed running shoes and worn mud-colored shalwar.†   (source)
  • Nerves frayed, I stomped across the kitchen, grabbed her cheeks in one hand, squeezed.†   (source)
  • It's the only thing that keeps the frayed edges of my sanity intact.†   (source)
  • "Jack," Charles said, "throughout this entire adventure, you have jumped willingly into every fray.†   (source)
  • Kenji stabs the moss with a stick and prods at a frayed husk of a pinecone emptied of seeds.†   (source)
  • And, though a frayed electric cord dangled from a plaster wreath of roses in the ceiling, only an oil lamp added its dim light to the fire, an oil lamp which stood by the wailing child on a nearby table.†   (source)
  • It was carved in black wood, with a canopy of angels in relief and a few scraps of red brocade that were frayed with age.†   (source)
  • All they ever really saw of the soldier in white was a frayed black hole over his mouth.†   (source)
  • Still, Snow Flower wore it with ease until it started to fade and fray.†   (source)
  • Even the walls were upholstered in fraying black and gray fabric that was probably a hundred years old.†   (source)
  • The bad scene had shaken me more than I had realized, or maybe I was just too ragged and frayed right then.†   (source)
  • And, by spring, things were starting to fray with him and Leona, where he was living.†   (source)
  • The paper was frayed, its edges soft, as if it had been unfolded and refolded several hundred times.†   (source)
  • "Rules are rules!" the conductor said, his patience fraying.†   (source)
  • The big fellow with the prognathic jaw shed his fraying coat; his shorter companion pulled off his tattered sweater.†   (source)
  • The lawyers had been up all night, either working or worrying, and looked as frayed as they felt.†   (source)
  • He took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm his frayed nerves, but nothing seemed to still the palpable throb in his hands and arms.†   (source)
  • But when I finished medical school and started residency, my spiritual life began to fray at the edges.†   (source)
  • Lieutenant Awn's patience frayed, and she attacked directly.†   (source)
  • Beneath the plastic suit Burton wore a dirty plaid sport shirt with a stain on the left breast pocket; his trousers were creased and frayed and even his hair, Stone felt, was unruly and untidy.†   (source)
  • Cuffs were frayed, knees patched, stockings or marching gaiters often torn beyond mending, try as each man would to look the part.†   (source)
  • Then I went back to hide in the frayed opulence of the old Pontchartrain Hotel on St. Charles.†   (source)
  • Bourne slowly rose to his feet, his legs in agony, every nerve in his body frayed, the edge of hysteria not far away.†   (source)
  • She went to her whisket then and brought out a piece of stained, frayed cloth.†   (source)
  • His fingers spilled through frayed woolen mitts and with no coat, he was hopping from one foot to the other to keep warm.†   (source)
  • A pair of frayed trousers stick out from beneath a '5 5 Plymouth.†   (source)
  • The gentle waves wore only thin frayed collars of phosphorescent foam.†   (source)
  • And that's just about what I'm fixin' to do; Bennett is starting to fray my nerves."†   (source)
  • Out of that blankness stretched a few strands of legend, badly frayed in their passage through successive minds.†   (source)
  • I remember the questions and the answers I had to learn, and I remember the well-thumbed, frayed book that was sacred to me.†   (source)
  • Looking down at the frayed parchment, he saw that the pledge had already been inscribed in black script.†   (source)
  • We were probably starting to fray at the edges, and that was in no small part because of the pressure that we'd put on ourselves.†   (source)
  • By the time we reach the front door of the building, I'm already sweating and my nerves are frayed.†   (source)
  • I spot a few moritis: rusted metal enclosures over the burial mounds, with frayed canvas and nylon tops; a name and birth and death dates soldered to the front, the letters breaking away.†   (source)
  • 'Then the rope must have broken — frayed on the rock-edge, I expect,' said Frodo.†   (source)
  • Aunt Carrie looked rundown herself, in her frayed sweaters and canvas and rubber Keds shoes.†   (source)
  • Arliss was racing around the cabin, dragging a short piece of frayed rope.†   (source)
  • The point where it was tied was dangerously frayed as if it had been rotting in the rain.†   (source)
  • Trails of frayed odd ribbons and precious bits of gift wrap and other junks of the past.†   (source)
  • And in one of these frays six were put to flight by the rest and fled with their women into the centre of the island and up a mountain, and went, as they thought, into a cave to hide.†   (source)
  • All the seams are fraying, just look.†   (source)
  • I snagged a piece of the frayed sleeve of my sweatshirt and ripped it off.†   (source)
  • To look at it, the Flash is just twisted scrap metal painted baby blue, with a 1970s bucket seat and a frayed cloth lap belt, but something about it makes my palms itch and I can't wait to ride.†   (source)
  • Like his dog-eared Bible, Lincoln's volume of Shakespeare has become frayed and worn over the years.†   (source)
  • To tell the truth, I was in no fit mental state to do anything except hurry home to Mike's and seek solace for my tattered nerves and frayed vanity in the bottom of a jar of wolf-juice.†   (source)
  • He wore an old double-breasted suit, frayed gray shirt, wide tie, no hat.†   (source)
  • I also remember a certain venerable frayed and patterned afghan which in cold weather she used to cover her lap and the imprisoned leg.†   (source)
  • I watched the frayed rope running through his hands.†   (source)
  • A fly was ready fastened on the line, a black gnat, a little frayed but still hairy enough.†   (source)
  • The delay was fraying his nerves.†   (source)
  • Ted Stone began to fray my nerves.†   (source)
  • But the steamer was not meant for me or—in spite of the colonial emblems embroidered in red on the frayed, much laundered sheets and pillowcase on Ferdinand's bunk—for the people who had in the old days required certificates of civic merit, with good reason.†   (source)
  • Inside the box there were compartments covered in red velvet, frayed but still noble, and in the compartments there were objects.†   (source)
  • The rest Leamas tolerated: the flower pattern curtains, not lined or hemmed, the fraying brown carpets and the clumsy dark wood furniture, like something from a seamen's hostel.†   (source)
  • To sweep the front room meant, principally, to sweep the heavy red and green and purple Oriental-style carpet that had once been that room's glory, but was now so faded that it was all one swimming color, and so frayed in places that it tangled with the broom.†   (source)
  • Nero's tone had frayed like a weathered rope.†   (source)
  • They used steel cables, frayed at the ends.†   (source)
  • Near the ground, the figure's legs frayed into tattered blue-gray sprays of water.†   (source)
  • She toys with the frayed ends of her scarf.†   (source)
  • She is carrying two towels: one white, one gray, both frayed at the edges.†   (source)
  • Her nerves felt frayed, and she was increasingly anxious for news about her brother.†   (source)
  • We'll have to check them occasionally for fraying," commented Murtagh.†   (source)
  • The curls are starting to fray on the ends, but the rest of my hair is still smooth.†   (source)
  • The floor was layered with frayed Persian rugs that spat up puffs of dust underfoot.†   (source)
  • The collar must have been really big, like disco-big, because she'd cut it, and it was fraying.†   (source)
  • Its edges were frayed and the yarn tickled her cheek.†   (source)
  • It was connected to the rest of the machine by what looked like frayed grey rope.†   (source)
  • Simon pulled one gangly leg up and twisted the frayed edge of the hole in the knee of his jeans.†   (source)
  • "I knew her as Jocelyn Fairchild, not Jocelyn Fray," said Hodge.†   (source)
  • He wears a red collared shirt and a pair of jeans that are fraying at the knee.†   (source)
  • Everything Jocelyn Fray drew, painted, or sketched was beautiful, and seemingly effortless.†   (source)
  • He was wearing jeans and a frayed I love NEW YORK T-shirt that had belonged to his dad.†   (source)
  • I can fix my own hair, Fray," Simon said, jerking away from her touch.†   (source)
  • Jocelyn Fray was a slim, compact woman, her hair a few shades darker than Clary's and twice as long.†   (source)
  • Because she wasn't Jocelyn Fray at all, of course," she said.†   (source)
  • It was the first time I had seen her new name: Jocelyn Fray.†   (source)
  • He was in a budget hotel, and the comforter was fraying slightly at the edges.†   (source)
  • Maester Luwin looked worn-out and frayed.†   (source)
  • Yes, the jeans were faded and frayed, the heart on the leg crooked, too dark.†   (source)
  • Once they crossed a frayed and spindly rope bridge.†   (source)
  • Nobody ever says it, but only the naive accept his above-the-fray posture.†   (source)
  • Palmer tore off the paper to reveal an old, frayed shoe box.†   (source)
  • Max's eyes scoured the document out to its frayed and tattered edges.†   (source)
  • Deeply faded, they were ripped at the knees and the cuffs were frayed.†   (source)
  • She had on a T-shirt and a warm polo sweater with a seam that had started to fray at the neck.†   (source)
  • Its edges are all fraying, wearing with time.†   (source)
  • "This is pointless," I said, my nerves frayed.†   (source)
  • The floor was a rope bridge, frayed and twisting.†   (source)
  • Every nerve and blood vessel seemed to be fraying, splitting down the middle.†   (source)
  • Or maybe this waiting is fraying his nerves the way it's fraying mine.†   (source)
  • Something about the sounds eased her frayed nerves.†   (source)
  • Bourne led her to the chair; she caught the sleeve of her dress on the frayed lace.†   (source)
  • He wore jeans, frayed at the hems, and a gray T-shirt.†   (source)
  • "Try this on," she said, and tossed him the green sweater, slightly less frayed than the rest.†   (source)
  • A length of frayed rope bound the bundle together.†   (source)
  • I'd been reduced to an empty stomach, frayed nerves, and a full bladder.†   (source)
  • It is thick, with a worn cover and frayed edges.†   (source)
  • The collar of his robe was frayed, and one sleeve had been torn and badly sewn.†   (source)
  • "I'm so sorry," she said, repeating it three times, her voice raw, a fraying rope.†   (source)
  • She nestles her grandson beneath a frayed blanket on her bed and kisses his eyes closed.†   (source)
  • The last of the sun's rays are focused on an overhang of frayed clouds.†   (source)
  • If you weren't a friend of Magnus Bane's, Jocelyn Fairchild— "Fray," Jocelyn said.†   (source)
  • The clothes she wore were rags, faded and fraying, but warm clean rags for all that.†   (source)
  • It was easy to imagine the frayed state her nerves must be in.†   (source)
  • Ben reached into his hip pocket and took out a frayed billfold and handed her a tiny snapshot.†   (source)
  • The young girls hung on to the widow's frayed skirts and cried.†   (source)
  • Though his robes were clean, they were frayed and patched as well.†   (source)
  • He thought he could smell smoke, though perhaps it was just the scent of his nerves fraying.†   (source)
  • Lorena felt a touch of shame that a man would notice the fraying.†   (source)
  • "You're going to have to start wearing heels, Fray," he said, lips against her cheek.†   (source)
  • Their alliance with the Tyrells is fraying, to judge from what I read here.†   (source)
  • Some looked very old, their covers frayed, their bindings reduced to a few strings.†   (source)
  • When I get closer to them, I see that they're worn and frayed at the edges.†   (source)
  • But on the bed was a single piece of paper—a white square against the frayed black blanket.†   (source)
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