fraynen

• frain, fraine, frainen, frayn, frayne, freinen, freyne
• fræine, fræinien, vraini (early)
• fraȝȝnenn (Ormulum)

Inherited from Old English fræġnian, variant of freġnan, friġnan (“to inquire, ask”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną; reinforced by Old Norse fregna.

fraynen (third-person singular simple present frayneth, present participle fraynende, fraynynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle frayned)

1. To ask or inquire; to make an inquiry:
   1. To ask or make a request (for something).
      • fifteenth century, unknown author, The prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer:

        I frained fast what was his name, Where that he came, from what country.

   2. To ask or direct a question at someone:
      • c. 1370–90, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:

        Þanne I frained hir faire · for hym þat hir made. or Then I frayned at Faith what all that fare meant and who should joust in Jerusalem.

      • c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales:

        She fraineth and she prayeth pitously To every Jew that dwelt in thilke place To tell her if her child went ought forby.

   3. To ask or put forward (a question).
2. To look or search for something.
3. To acquire knowledge through asking.

• afraynen

• English: frain
• Scots: frain, frane, frayn, frayne

• “frainen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.