foray
/ˈfɔɹ.eɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.04 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid.
noun
A brief excursion or attempt, especially outside one's accustomed sphere.
verb
To participate in a foray.
Example Sentences
- "Bastian Schweinsteiger and Muller were among many who should have added the third, and City were limited to rare forays with the excellent Boateng pinching the ball off Aguero and Aleksandar Kolarov shooting wide in stoppage time."
- "The people of Granada resumed all at once their ancient activity, foraying into the Christian territories, surprising Alhendin and some other places of less importance, and stirring up the spirit of revolt in Guadix and other conquered cities."
- ""It seems as though I have lived this life always. The world of books and bookish folk is very vague, more like a dream memory than an actuality. I surely have hunted and forayed and fought all the days of my life. And you, too, seem a part of it. You are -- " I was on the verge of saying, "my woman, my mate," but glibly changed it to -- "standing the hardship well.""
- "Over the summer, I'd been following the news cycle, foraying into online journalism, and I wrote a couple of pieces on male victims of sexual violence, who are often left to the margins or forgotten altogether in feminist accounts of rape culture."
- "He bad to open wyde his brazen gate, Which long time had bene shut, and out of hond Proclaymed joy and peace through all his state; For dead now was their foe which them forrayed late."
- "Bruce forayed Cumberland, and threatened Berwick, so that the poor Countess of Buchan was removed from thence to a more secure place of captivity."
Etymology
From Middle English forrayen (“to pillage”), a back-formation of forrayour, forreour, forrier (“raider, pillager”), from Old French forrier, fourrier, a derivative of fuerre (“provender, fodder, straw”), from Frankish *fōdar (“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“fodder, feed, sheath”), from Proto-Indo-European *patrom (“fodder”), *pat- (“to feed”), *pāy- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with Old High German fuotar (German Futter (“fodder, feed”)), Old English fōdor, fōþer (“food, fodder, covering, case, basket”), Dutch voeder (“forage, food, feed”), Danish foder (“fodder, feed”), Icelandic fóður (“fodder, sheath”). More at fodder, food, forage.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: forrayen, forrier, *fōdar, *fōdrą, *patrom
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfɔɹ.eɪ/
- British English: /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/