Abraid

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /əˈbɹeɪd/
• Homophones: abrade

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"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhrēḱ-, *bhrēǵ- ("to shine"), equivalent to - + braid. Related to Dutch breien ("to knit"), German bretten ("to knit").

Alternative forms

• abray

Full definition of abraid

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To wrench (something) out. 10th-13th c.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To wake up. 11th-18th c.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.6:But when as I did out of sleepe abray,
  I found her not where I her left whyleare ….
• 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XIII, l:But from his study he at last abray'd,
• Call'd by the hermit old...
3. (intransitive, archaic) To spring, start, make a sudden movement. from 11th c.
4. (intransitive, transitive, obsolete) To shout out. 15th-16th c.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To rise in the stomach with nausea. 16th-19th c.

Related terms

• abray

From Middle English abrede. More at abread.

Adverb

1. Alternative form of abread