▪ I. foray, n.
(ˈfɒreɪ)
Forms: α. 4–5 forray, (5 ferray), 5 forra, 5–7 forrey, (5 forey), 6–7 forreie, 9 foray. β. 6 forrow.
[See next vb.]
1. A hostile or predatory incursion or inroad, a raid. † in, of foray: on a foray.
Revived in the 19th c. by Sir Walter Scott.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 281 Sum sall wend to the forray. c 1400–20 Judicium (Roxb.) 7 Some at ayll howse I fande: and som of ferray. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 463 Thir four hundreth..A forray kest and sessit mekill gud. c 1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd. No. 29) 16 The forrow was..mainteyned every waye, without resistance. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. xiii. 82 Had not our Horse been over⁓wearied with their long forrey. 1813 Scott Trierm. i. ii, The foray was long, and the skirmish hot. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xxiii. 471 The continual forays of Mariano had spread ruin and desolation on our south-east. |
| transf. and fig. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall xxv, They [the rooks] are apt now and then to issue forth from their castles on a foray. 1850 D. G. Mitchell Rever. of Bachelor (1852) 258 Forbid those earnest forays over the borders of Now, and on what spoils would the soul live? |
† 2. Booty taken in a foray; prey. Also pl.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 6426 Þat neuer of forray art full. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xl. 264 Þai na gret Forrais made. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. ii. vii. (1622) 148 Desirous to hunt after pillage and forreies. |
† 3. The advance-guard of an army.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xl. 136 Willame of Dowglas, þat þan was Ordanyd in Forray for to pas. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 468 The forray tuk the pray, and past the playn, Towart the park. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 339 Neirby in sicht the forrow to reskew. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1216/2 The forreie was a little troubled with a fortie or fiftie Scots horssemen. |
▪ II. foray, v.
(ˈfɒreɪ)
Forms: 4–7 forray, (4 forra, 5 forr(e)y, 6 fory, forrow, 7 furrow), 9 foray. pa. tense 6–7 forrai(e)d.
[ultimately from Rom. *fodro (see forage n.); the precise formation and the mutual relation of the vb. and n. are somewhat obscure.
The supposition most free from difficulties is perh. that the n. is f. the vb., and that the vb. is a back-formation from forayer (the forms forrow, furrow, may come from the form furrour of the n.). The alternative is to regard foray n. as a derivative of OF. forrer to forage (see forage n.), and as having given rise to the Eng. vb.]
1. trans. To scour or ravage (a country) in search of forage or booty; to pillage; to seize and carry off (goods); to plunder the property of (a person).
Revived in the 19th c. by Sir Walter Scott.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1200 Stoken so strayt, þat þay ne stray myȝt A fote fro þat forselet to forray no goudes. 1375 Barbour Bruce xv. 511 Than gert he forray all the land. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. x. 62 Enee..A certane horsmen, lycht armyt for the nanis, Hes send befor for to forray the planis. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. xii. 3 Dead now was their foe, which them forrayed late. 1644 D. Hume Hist. Ho. Douglas 167 Hee was scarce retired, when Creighton..furrowed the lands of Corstorphin. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iv. xxiii, When Roderick foray'd Devanside. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos I. xxxix. 333 Bruce forayed Cumberland. |
2. intr. To make a raid; to forage; to pillage.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xix. 643 Na we may forra for to get met. c 1450 Merlin 179 He herde telle that thei [the saisnes] come to forrey. c 1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd. No. 29) 37 Certaine companies..hearing, as they forrowed abroad, spoyling the countrey, that [etc.]. 1593 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1597) §174 Sum quha nightlie and dailie rieuis, forrayis, and committis open thieft. 1813 Hogg Queen's Wake 196 To drive the deer of Otterdale, Or foray on the Border side. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. i. xv. II. 162 The people of Granada.. foraying into the Christian territories. |
Hence ˈforaying vbl. n., the action of the vb.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxx. 135 Withouten certayne scales þat er ordaynd for forraying. 1470–85 Malory Arthur v. ix. 175, I wyl that thou make the redy and goo thyder in foreyeng. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Tala, foraying, spoiling, Depopulatio. |