abraid

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /əˈbɹeɪd/
• Homophone: abrade

Etymology 1

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 a- +‎ braid. Related to Dutch breien (“to knit”), German bretten (“to knit”).

Alternative forms

• abray

Verb

abraid (third-person singular simple present abraids, present participle abraiding, simple past and past participle abraided or abraid)

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 […].

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

Etymology 2

From Middle English abrede. More at abread.

Adverb

abraid (comparative more abraid, superlative most abraid)

1. Alternative form of abread.

References

• The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition