All 3 Uses

frayed
in
Great Expectations
(Auto-generated)

It was a little past midday when the four-horse stage-coach by which I was a passenger, got into the ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross Keys, Wood Street, Cheapside, London.†
p. 170.1 *
I judged him to be a bachelor from the frayed condition of his linen, and he appeared to have sustained a good many bereavements; for he wore at least four mourning rings, besides a brooch representing a lady and a weeping willow at a tomb with an urn on it.†
p. 179.4
Again among the tiers of shipping, in and out, avoiding rusty chain-cables frayed hempen hawsers and bobbing buoys, sinking for the moment floating broken baskets, scattering floating chips of wood and shaving, cleaving floating scum of coal, in and out, under the figure-head of the John of Sunderland making a speech to the winds (as is done by many Johns), and the Betsy of Yarmouth with a firm formality of bosom and her knobby eyes starting two inches out of her head;†
p. 464.3

Definitions:

(1) (frayed as in: frayed cloth)
showing wear with threads beginning to separate or hang loose
(2) (frayed as in: frayed nerves)
emotionally strained (worn thin)
(3) (fray as in: into the fray)
a noisy fight, controversial debate, or other exciting situation that usually is not well organized
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)