- abrade
- abrade, excoriate, chafe, fret, gall mean to affect a surface by rubbing, scraping, or wearing away.Abrade usually implies rubbing or scraping by something hard or harsh: when the surface rubbed or scraped is soft, injury results, but when it approaches the other in hardness, a smoothing or polishing (as by grinding) may be achieved{
the palms of his hands abraded by gravel
}{the ship’s side was abraded in the collision
}{loose sand grains . . . may be hurled against projecting masses of rock with such force as to abrade . . . their surfaces by a natural sandblast— Scientific Monthly
}{an abrasive is a substance used in abrading steel
}Excoriate which literally implies a stripping or wearing away of the skin or hide usually suggests a peculiarly painful effect on something soft or tender made by something (as an abrasive or abrasion or a corrosive substance) that removes or destroys a protective layer such as the skin or mucous membrane{the ends of his fingers were excoriated by acid
}{my lips . . . were excoriated as with vinegar and gall— Brontë
}Chafe suggests a slight but persistent and painful or injurious rubbing of one thing upon another{objected to wearing wool which she said chafed her skin
}{the hawsers were so chafed by rubbing against the wharf that they required replacement Fret suggests an eating into or wearing away
}{the river frets away the rocks along its banks— T. H. Huxley
}{dripping water fretted a channel through the stone
}Gall is used especially with reference to animals and, less often, to persons: it implies a superficial injury such as an abrasion or blister made by friction{an ill-fitting saddle galled the horse’s back
}All have extended usage with an implication of irritating or wearing.Abrade and chafe usually suggest a persistent cause{took refuge in a subdued blubbering, which soon abraded the teacher’s nerves— Perelmari
}{a theater that is so physically uncomfortable as to chafe the playgoer’s disposition even before the curtain rises—A. Y. Times
}Excoriate is used rather specifically of a censuring so severe as to cause real distress or mental anguish{when his programs fail, the implementation, not the directive will be excoriated; the subordinates and volunteers, not the dictator will suffer— Straight
}{excoriated the morality of the Gilded Age and yet was fascinated by some of its surface trappings— J. D. Hart
}Fret and gall typically imply a causing of emotional wear and tear{the galling frictions are in the world today— Benedict
}{that hidden bond which at other moments galled and fretted him so as to mingle irritation with the very sunshine— George Eliot
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
