Verb

To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.

To defend; protect.

To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.

to wear the wolf from the sheep

To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.

Verb

To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, etc.

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*

*:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=5 citation , passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}

To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.

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*, chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}

To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.

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To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.

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To eat away at, erode, diminish, or consume gradually; to cause a gradual deterioration in; to produce (some change) through attrition, exposure, or constant use.

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(lb) To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.

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*Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

*:His stock of money began to wear very low.

* (1804-1881)

*:The familywore out in the earlier part of the century.

To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary.  His neverending criticism has finally worn' my patience.  Toil and care soon '''wear''' the spirit.  Our physical advantage allowed us to ' wear the other team out

(lb) To last or remain durable under hard use or over time; to retain usefulness, value, or desirable qualities under any continued strain or long period of time; sometimes said of a person, regarding the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate.

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(in the phrase "wearing on (someone) ") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.

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To pass slowly, gradually or tediously.

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*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:Away, I say; time wears .

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:Thus wore out night.

(lb) To bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern (as opposed to tacking when the wind is brought around the bow); to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind. Also written "ware". Past: weared, or wore/worn.

Verb

(en verb)

To unravel; used particularly for the edge of something made of cloth, or the end of a rope.

The ribbon frayed at the cut end.

(figuratively) To cause exhaustion, wear out (a person's mental strength).

The stressful day ended in frayed nerves. (Metaphorical use; nerves are visualised as strings)

(archaic) frighten; alarm

* 1662 , , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 63:

"Besides, all the wit and Philosophy in the world can never demonstrate, that the killing and slaughtering of a Beast is anymore then the striking of a Bush where a Bird's Nest is, where you fray away the Bird, and then seize upon the empty Nest."

* Spenser

What frays ye, that were wont to comfort me affrayed?

To bear the expense of; to defray.

* Massinger

The charge of my most curious and costly ingredients frayed , I shall acknowledge myself amply satisfied.

To rub.

* Sir Walter Scott

We can show the marks he made / When 'gainst the oak his antlers frayed .