dray
/dɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of various forms of low horse-drawn cart or wagon, often without sides or with removable sides, and used especially for heavy loads.
noun
Alternative spelling of drey (“squirrel's nest”).
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "Let him be brought into the field of election upon his dray-cart."
- "Standing foursquare in the heart of the town, at the intersection of the two main streets, a “jog” at each street corner left around the market-house a little public square, which at this hour was well occupied by carts and wagons from the country and empty drays awaiting hire"
- "‘I’ve seen him take things and lift them into a dray - things that - that - that - well, that you and me together couldn’t lift an inch!’"
- "The shooting motor cars, more like spiders in the moon than terrestrial objects, the thundering drays, the jingling hansoms, and little black broughams, made her think of the world she lived in."
- "He told how the herons always came at St. Valentine's to Felborough Wood and Chilham, and how the terns came in screaming gaggles when September was ending, and where the squirrels' drays were mostly found, and where he had seen a cete of badgers."
- "You can imagine that families and extended families who nurtured the offspring of their family, i.e. their tribe, barrel, pod (whales), or dray (squirrels) do better, i.e. have more healthier offspring who go on to produce more offspring——children and grandchildren—than those who don't nurture so well."
Etymology
From Middle English draye, dreye, from Old English dræġe (“dragnet”), from Proto-Germanic *dragǭ. Cognate with Middle Low German drāge (“stretcher; dray”), Middle High German trage (“a litter”). Related to Old English dragan (“to pull; draw”). More at draw.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: draye, dræġe, *dragǭ