His resignation was the culmination of a tumultuous political week, in which the government's inherently brittle center-left coalition grew badly frayed from within.

The Admiral's deep cover was fraying badly even before he was killed.

The family relations, which began showing signs of strain after R. C. Hoiles's death in 1970, frayed badly in 1980 when Clarence Hoiles's declining health raised the question of succession to the top post.

Out of that blankness stretched a few strands of legend, badly frayed in their passage through successive minds.

I noticed that the power cord on the sander was fraying badly and made a mental note to replace it, something I would, to my everlasting regret, forget to do.

These had been badly frayed since Sept. 11, in part because 15 out of the 19 airplane hijackers were Saudi.

His maps were useless: there were no marked roads, nothing to be seen in any direction for miles; and his patience was badly frayed at seeing Temeraire go hungry and thirsty.

Almost daily the fragile bonds that have held Kashmir, the country's only predominently Muslim region, to the rest of overwhelmingly Hindu India are fraying badly.

The president, who is scheduled to travel to Europe next month, rejected the suggestion that relations with Europe, particularly with Germany and France, are badly frayed after the split over the Iraq war.

His usual equanimity frayed badly in the stress of battle.