Abrayed

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Worn down or eroded due to friction or rubbing ; showing signs of abrasion or roughening ; describing a surface or material damaged by scraping or grinding
2. Exhibiting effects of gradual wearing caused by constant rubbing ; characterized by rough, uneven surfaces resulting from chafing ; pertaining to an object whose outer layers have been physically worn away
3. Marked by deterioration due to repeated contact or scraping ; having frayed or rough edges from continuous wear ; referring to materials or items showing abrasions from mechanical action

Etymology: "Abrayed" is the past tense and past participle of "abray," and it belongs to a small family of verbs that trace back to "abraid," an older form of "abraid" meaning to awaken or rouse. The historical link runs through "abraid" itself, which was a Middle English verb, and "abray" arose from it as a back-formation: speakers worked backward from the past forms "abraid" and "abrayde" and created a new present-tense verb from them. The meaning of "abraid" in its own time is not something this etymology can establish in detail, so the chain of sense change from rousing to wearing away is not safely traceable here. Because "abrayed" is simply the regular inflection of "abray," there is no separate story attached to its ending. Its root is best understood as the verb "abray," and the inflection tells you only that the action occurred in the past.

Synonyms: frayed, worn, tattered, ragged, shredded

Antonyms: intact, whole, unbroken, undamaged, pristine