''defray'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

↩ 🔳 🔳 🔳

---

Primary

⁀➴

''defray'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔

defray - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

defray (third-person singular simple present defrays, present participle defraying, simple past and past participle defrayed) (transitive)

• To pay or discharge (a debt, expense etc.); to meet (the cost of something).
  • ✤ Synonyms: finance, (obsolete, rare) fray, offset
  • ✤ The expenses of the war, while in progress, were defrayed by executing rich men and confiscating their property.¹
  • ✤ Investors, meanwhile, got back a fraction of their money. Some say Mr Meinl’s €100m bail, paid by a source in Liechtenstein, should be used to defray their losses.²
  • ✤ In order to help defray the substantial costs involved, they then raised revenue through taking advertisements.³
  • ✤ With his legal maneuverings, Trump is showing that he also understands the implications of this election — one that could give him substantial powers as president to defray or dismiss many of the legal threats that he’s facing and to behave in office without future accountability.⁴
• (archaic) To pay for (something).
• (obsolete) To spend (money).

Etymology

From Middle French desfrayer, French défrayer, from dé- + Old French fraier (“to spend”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA: /dɪˈfɹeɪ/
• (Australia) IPA: /dɪˈfɹæɪ/
  • Audio (Queensland): 🔊
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Hyphenation: de‧fray

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29: ↩

2. 2009 July 30, ‘A Viennese grind’, The Economist: ↩

3. 2010 December 9, Roy Greenslade, The Guardian: ↩

4. 2024 February 5, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s legal battles are at a critical moment with major implications for the 2024 election”, in CNN ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

• • •

---