dray

See also: Dray

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: drā, IPA^(key): /dɹeɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

dray (plural drays)

1. Any of various forms of low horse-drawn cart or wagon, often without sides or with removable sides, and used especially for heavy loads.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     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

   • September 28 1710, Joseph Addison, Whig-Examiner:

     Let him be brought into the field of election upon his dray-cart.

2. A kind of sledge or sled.

Coordinate terms

• dumpcart
• galamander
• stoneboat
• tumbril

 

Derived terms

• drayage
• drayload
• drayman
• drayperson

 

Translations

horse-drawn cart

• Bashkir: арба (arba)
• Bulgarian: каруца (bg) f (karuca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 運貨馬車／运货马车 (zh) (yùnhuò mǎchē)

• Czech: valník (cs) m
• Finnish: rattaat (fi)
• Galician: carreta f
• Irish: drae m
• Italian: carro (it) m, carretta (it) f
• Maori: terei
• Portuguese: carroça (pt) f
• Russian: теле́га (ru) f (teléga), воз (ru) m (voz)
• Spanish: carreta (es) f, carretón (es) m
• Swedish: drög (sv) c
• Welsh: car (cy) m, cart (cy) m

See also

• flatbed
• stakebody

 

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Noun

dray (plural drays)

1. Alternative spelling of drey (“squirrel's nest”)

References

• “dray”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “dray”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Rady, yard, Dyar, R-Day, Yard, adry

Sranan Tongo

Verb

dray

1. Alternative spelling of drai