Definition of "affray"

affray

/əˈfɹeɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present affrays, present participle affraying, simple past and past participle affrayed
1. (archaic, transitive) To startle from quiet; to alarm.
2. (archaic, transitive) To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
  Quotations
  That voice doth us affray.
  c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene v]
noun
countable and uncountable, plural affrays
1. The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
  Quotations
  A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics.
  2015, 8 November, "Rugby league journalist Gary Carter critically ill after Bethnal Green attack", BBC News
2. A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
3. The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
4. (obsolete) Terror.
  Quotations
  full of ghastly fright and cold affray
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie