What's the difference between combat and fray?

Combat


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To struggle or contend, as with an opposing force; to fight.
  • (v. t.) To fight with; to oppose by force, argument, etc.; to contend against; to resist.
  • (n.) A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy.
  • (n.) An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I want to be clear; the American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,” said Obama in a speech to troops at US Central Command headquarters in Florida.
  • (2) The manufacturers, British Aerospace describe it as a "single-seat, radar equipped, lightweight, multi-role combat aircraft, providing comprehensive air defence and ground attack capability".
  • (3) Infusion of sodium lactate associated with isoproterenol could be used to combat the depressent effects of betablockers in patients with cardiac disorders.
  • (4) By the time Van Kirk returned to the US in June 1943, he had flown 58 combat and eight transport missions.
  • (5) They insist this is the best way of ensuring the country does not descend into chaos before the final withdrawal of combat troops.
  • (6) That’s a criticism echoed by Democrats in the Senate, who issued a report earlier this month criticising Republicans for passing sweeping legislation in July to combat addiction , the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (Cara), but refusing to fund it.
  • (7) They are the E-1 to E-3 pay grades and soldiers in combat arms units.
  • (8) We reviewed the pre-Vietnam contents of the service medical and personnel records of 250 Vietnam combat veterans, in an attempt to identify factors predisposing to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  • (9) If we reach the point where I believe our advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific [Isis] targets, I will recommend that to the president,” Dempsey said, preferring the term “close combat advising”.
  • (10) Environmental campaigners had been apprehensive about the chances of the Senate ratifying a new international treaty – a successor to the Kyoto protocol – to combat global warming unless a consensus had already been reached on Capitol Hill.
  • (11) Germany’s parliament has thrown its weight behind the European campaign against Islamic State , voting with a solid majority in favour of deploying military personnel to Syria in a non-combat role.
  • (12) The Pentagon leadership suggested to a Senate panel on Tuesday that US ground troops may directly join Iraqi forces in combat against the Islamic State (Isis), despite US president Barack Obama’s repeated public assurances against US ground combat in the latest Middle Eastern war.
  • (13) In government, Abbott had relished the daily combat but his officials complained he wasn’t enamoured by detailed policy work.
  • (14) The home fans were lifted by the sight of Billy Bonds, a legend in these parts, being presented with a lifetime achievement award before the kick-off and the former West Ham captain and manager probably would have enjoyed playing in Allardyce's combative midfield.
  • (15) Rarely has there been a potential presidential candidate so battle-hardened and ready for combat.
  • (16) Computer says no: Amazon uses AI to combat fake reviews Read more “Imagine as the CEO of a major company you go off and spend £100m on gathering data,” Hammond says.
  • (17) Al-Shamiri has been held as an enemy combatant without charge at Guantánamo since 2002.
  • (18) The government's decision to allow a cull of badgers, reportedly to combat bovine tuberculosis, "flies in the face of the scientific evidence" and will serve only to spread the disease, Labour claims.
  • (19) In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to examine predictive relationships between premilitary adjustment, military adjustment, combat exposure, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  • (20) The prime minister could publish the reply upon his return from the opening of climate change talks in Paris on Tuesday next week, depending on the progress made in discussions between Russia and the west on the best approach to combating Isis.

Fray


Definition:

  • (n.) Affray; broil; contest; combat.
  • (v. t.) To frighten; to terrify; to alarm.
  • (v. t.) To bear the expense of; to defray.
  • (v. t.) To rub; to wear off, or wear into shreds, by rubbing; to fret, as cloth; as, a deer is said to fray her head.
  • (v. i.) To rub.
  • (v. i.) To wear out or into shreads, or to suffer injury by rubbing, as when the threads of the warp or of the woof wear off so that the cross threads are loose; to ravel; as, the cloth frays badly.
  • (n.) A fret or chafe, as in cloth; a place injured by rubbing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The appointment of the mayor of London's brother, who formally becomes a Cabinet Office minister, is one of a series of moves designed to strengthen the political operation in Downing Street and to patch up the prime minister's frayed links with the Conservative party.
  • (2) In comparison with the controls, the isoproterenol-treated (Group A), the Ca-treated (Group B), and the diltiazem-posttreated (Groups E and F) showed severe myocardial cell damage, such as sarcolemmal disruption, mitochondrial swelling, intramitochondrial electron-dense granules, membranous structures along mitochondrial cristae, thickening or close packing of the Z-lines, separation of cell junctions, frayed myofibrils, clumping of chromatin, and intracellular fluid accumulation.
  • (3) Carefully pull the frayed seam over the original seam line and pin in place.
  • (4) Miliband steps back into the fray as ex-Labour MP Chris Mullin said the party should bring back "grown ups" such as ex-chancellor Alistair Darling, while Tony Blair's former spin chief Alastair Campbell said Labour had made a mistake by failing to defend Gordon Brown's economic record.
  • (5) De Blasio and Bratton have promised to mend the frayed relations between police officers and the city's minority communities.
  • (6) Failing to get her voice heard above the fray is the biggest danger.
  • (7) On the frayed, far south-western outskirts of Bogotá, the largest, poorest and most violent barrio in the Colombian capital stretches into the haze up the mountainside as far as the eye can see.
  • (8) But when I check in a week later, at the height of the expenses storm, the optimism is sounding a tad frayed.
  • (9) These included torn or frayed menisci and those which were displaced, usually in a mesial direction.
  • (10) The shops on Main Street were mostly empty, paint fraying on the window panes.
  • (11) The fraying may be a consequence of proteolytic processing of the precursor of the inhibitor protein during entry into the mitochondrion.
  • (12) Relations between the bank and the Cambodian government have frayed over plans by a property developer to fill in a lake in the middle of Phnom Penh to build luxury flats and high-end shops.
  • (13) The Al Ahly ultras say they will rejoin the fray when the time is right.
  • (14) If you only have an 20cm tin you can use that instead, but don't use all the batter – about 80% will suffice – otherwise you'll end up with a volcanic overspill, cake soldered to the floor of the oven and a frayed temper.
  • (15) Laszlo Andor, the EU's employment commissioner, warned that record unemployment and fraying welfare systems in southern Europe risk creating a new divide in the continent.
  • (16) But we may be permitted to hope there is now a chance that something of the old Canada, committed to moderation and multiculturalism at home and to multilateralism and cooperation abroad, will re-emerge from the fray.
  • (17) Type II alveolar cells increased in number and showed vacuolization, fraying and membrane disruption of their lamellar inclusions.
  • (18) But it's fair to say a fondness for sniping games marks me out as a coward who'd rather take potshots from a distance than actually climb down from the tree and enter the fray like a man, a theory backed up by the fact that while I love sniping, I detest "stealth games" (because it's scary when you get caught) and "boss fights" where you have to battle some gargantuan show-off 10 times your height who keeps knocking you on your arse with his tail.
  • (19) Now that Obama has thrown the dice and joined the fray in Syria, Britain will feel increasing pressure to do more to help.
  • (20) Both dyed and undyed sutures were consistently better than surgical gut with respect to pliability, strength, ease of passage, ease of tying, fraying, knot security, and overall handling.