Verb (used with object) : The argument frayed their nerves.    From Dictionary.com. 

Verb (used without object) : My sweater frayed at the elbows. ,tall grass fraying against my knees.    From Dictionary.com. 

Noun : frays at the toes of well-worn sneakers.    From Dictionary.com. 

"soul be in arms," there are (Heaven knows) "frays" in this city numerous enough for any ambitious surgical eagerness.    From Wordnik.com.  [The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II] Reference

One more hip mending job complete -- frays in tact!.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2010-04-01] Reference

Age frays idealism, slackens zeal, and cools ferocity.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Dark Art of Interrogation] Reference

Or they joined frays as an exercise in team solidarity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Murder Without Icing]

Liars. cuz you left the frays from the ties you severed.    From Wordnik.com.  [aleighk21 Diary Entry] Reference

But an onslaught of criticism frays presidential nerves.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lauren Elkin: Casse-toi, Pauvre Con!] Reference

The president should in effect be above simulated frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [Serious Power Trips « Isegoria] Reference

The slum was gathering its strength for tomorrow's frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bitter Gold Hearts]

It frays nerves and sullies sunny dispositions in a heartbeat.    From Wordnik.com.  [Georgianne Nienaber: Congolese Midwives Struggle To Help Mothers Brutalized By War (SLIDESHOW)] Reference

Kennedy avoided most of the frays by staying respectful, but firm.    From Wordnik.com.  [Act of Treason]

But as soon as you start to get into specifics, the consensus frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [The lovely and expressive Michelle Obama spoke in Madison, Wisconsin today.] Reference

While waiting always frays the nerves of those who have only time to think.    From Wordnik.com.  [Year of the Unicorn]

The failure of it unravels, frays my sense of integrity itself dis/integration.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hollywood Savage] Reference

That's bringing national politics and the 2012 presidential race into local frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [Governors' Races Echo National Divides] Reference

In short, the cellphone is strengthening some social bonds even as it frays others.    From Wordnik.com.  [Everyone Is Talking] Reference

It certainly frays my nerves a lot less than Rod Liddle's increasingly rabid rants.    From Wordnik.com.  [Just Who is Tamzin Lightwater?] Reference

No frays to be found in Kerry's quite Senate office or Dukakis '.... wherever he is.    From Wordnik.com.  [Focus Group: Undecided Voters Care Much More About Character Than Issues] Reference

An Asian earthquake frays nerves and touches off fears of another North Korean nuclear test.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Oct 11, 2006] Reference

The words were tough and I still haven't found the best setting so that you don't get frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2008-06-01] Reference

In "Inception," the dream world "frays" when external influences from the real world intrude.    From Wordnik.com.  [DiCaprio thriller 'Inception' blends science into its fiction] Reference

Hers is also a practice which habitually "frays out into other art forms, in this case film".    From Wordnik.com.  [Huddersfield festival and the future of contemporary classical music] Reference

Turkey, which consisted of the usual fear of robbers, squabbles with muleteers, and frays at caravanserais.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan] Reference

Major-General D'Amade eulogised them for their bravery after the frays of the 6th, 7th, and 8th of May, 1915.    From Wordnik.com.  [Some Naval Yarns] Reference

Afterward, he strung his bow, checking the smooth surface of the weapon for flaws, the string for knots or frays.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Kinslayer Wars]

Thou hast given him a frame fragile as the frailest web of the spider, and every great thought rends and frays it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, August, 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy] Reference

Even within the cities there were often bloody frays and brawls between the supporters of one or another noble family.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Treasury of Heroes and Heroines A Record of High Endeavour and Strange Adventure from 500 B.C. to 1920 A.D.] Reference

If we lived in a world that required our leaders to be first into the fray there would very likely be fewer frays to leap into.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Emperor Should Die On His Feet « So Many Books] Reference

Assuming activism: Two frays in Foucauldian photographic studies (History of photography monograph series) by Mark William Woods.    From Wordnik.com.  [OpEdNews - Quicklink: Arizona voters victorious: RTA databases to be released] Reference

It changes things enough, bends and frays the connections to the facts enough, that you feel emboldened to invent, distort, etc.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sam Lipsyte - An interview with author] Reference

This wear and tear of war also frays our spiritedness, makes our losses less bearable, and preserves in us the shame of our folly.    From Wordnik.com.  [Thoughts for Obama and Clinton Down the Stretch: What True Change Involves] Reference

As things break apart, as the deal that's kept all the religious groups mostly on board frays, this could split any number of ways.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Nov 22, 2006] Reference

Perhaps this lack of hatred was because the goal of these battles, skirmishes, and frays had always been reunification, not conquest.    From Wordnik.com.  [Through Wolfs Eyes] Reference

There is “gourmet” for the French Laundry set and “gourmand” for those of us who are not above frays to the local taco truck.    From Wordnik.com.  [Foodies] Reference

MILAN -- As confidence frays in the euro zone, the German economy right now is proving the best hope for sustained growth in the region.    From Wordnik.com.  [Euro-Zone Growth May Rest With Germany] Reference

When making button holes in serge or any material which frays, place a piece of lawn of two thicknesses, underneath and work through this.    From Wordnik.com.  [Things Mother Used to Make] Reference

I'm not ruling it out because tensions do build and trust frays in this crazy samsara.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Buddhist Blog] Reference