Dictionary

abraid en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /əˈbɹeɪd/

Etymology

From Middle English abraiden, abreiden (“to start up, awake, move, reproach”), from Old English ābreġdan (“to move quickly, vibrate, draw, draw from, remove, unsheath, wrench, pull out, withdraw, take away, draw back, free from, draw up, raise, lift up, start up”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”) + *bregdaną (“to move, swing”), of uncertain further origin. Equivalent to a- + braid. Related to Dutch breien (“to knit”), German bretten (“to knit”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To wrench (something) out.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To unsheathe a blade, draw a weapon.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To wake up.
   • But when as I did out of ſleepe abray, / I found her not where I her left whyleare, […] 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 90:
   • But from his study he at last abray'd, / Call'd by the hermit old[…] 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XIII, l:
   • She ferde as she had stert out of a sleep, / Til she out of hire mazednesse abreyde. 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Clerke of Oxenfordes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:
4. (archaic, intransitive) To spring, start, make a sudden movement.
5. (intransitive, obsolete, transitive) To shout out.
6. (obsolete, transitive) To rise in the stomach with nausea.

Forms

Relateds

abray

abraid en · ADV · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /əˈbɹeɪd/

Etymology

From Middle English abrede. More at abread.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, not-comparable) Alternative form of abread.
   alt of abread