AFFRAY is the misdemeanour of breaking the peace in public to the terror of the king's subjects. Fighting in public is an affray, but no actual violence is necessary, and the offence is com mitted even where a man arms himself with weapons so as to cause terror to the public. Abusive and threatening words alone will not amount to an affray. In 1903 at the Carnarvon assizes before Mr. Justice Wills a conviction was obtained in Rex v. Meade where the accused went about armed and discharged a loaded revolver in a public street. He was also indicted under a statute of 1328 (2 Edw. III. c. 3). (See also RIOT.) In the United States the English common law as to affray applies, subject to certain modifications by the statutes of particu lar States (Bishop, Amer. Crim. Law, 9th ed., 1923, vol. i. § 535). The Indian penal code (§159) adopts the English definition of affray, with the substitution of "actual disturbance of the peace" for "causing terror to the lieges."