Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A noisy quarrel or brawl.
- transitive verb To frighten.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To frighten; terrify; give a shock to; arouse; disturb.
- noun Fear; terror.
- noun Disturbance involving terror.
- noun A public fight; a noisy quarrel; a brawl; a tumult; disturbance.
- noun Synonyms Broil. Scuffle, etc. See
quarrel , n.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete The act of suddenly disturbing any one; an assault or attack.
- noun obsolete Alarm; terror; fright.
- noun A tumultuous assault or quarrel; a brawl; a fray.
- noun (Law) The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
- transitive verb To startle from quiet; to alarm.
- transitive verb To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of suddenly disturbing any one; an assault or attack.
- noun A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
- noun The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
- verb To startle from quiet; to alarm.
- verb To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a noisy fight
- noun noisy quarrel
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Comanchero leader Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi was charged Monday with fighting in public in a way that caused bystanders to fear for their safety - a crime called affray - at the airport.
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New Orleans Times-Picayune, the involuntary manslaughter charge was dropped after Grant pleaded no contests to misdemeanor "affray" - fighting two or more persons in a public place.
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The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" - fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety.
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The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" - fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety.
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The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" - fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety.
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The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" - fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety.
unknown title 2009
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The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" - fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety.
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He expressed a strong objection to having manual labour imposed upon him as well as his other work: but they maintained that if only he had called the affray "a struggle for daily bread" or "a fight for a livelihood," he would quite have enjoyed it; and they further suggested that such diversion must be much more interesting than being a mere commonplace tutor who only taught lessons.
The Heavenly Twins Madame Sarah Grand
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A bloody affray, which is obscurely related, had occurred in St. Louis between the Secessionists and Federalists.
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Think you could end up in a world of hurt mate specially because you have already admitted and taken the fine for affray, which is a lot worse than just fighting.
Army Rumour Service 2009
Gammerstang commented on the word affray
(noun) - A skirmish or fighting between two or more. It is oft-times confounded with assalt. But they differ in that an assalt is only a wrong to the party, but an affray may also be without word or blow given, as if a man shew himself furnished with armour or weapons not usually worn, it may strike fear into others unarmed. Of the French affres, a fright. --Thomas Blount's Law Dictionary and Glossary, 1717
February 5, 2018