Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A low, heavy cart without sides, used for haulage.
  • transitive verb To haul by means of a dray.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To carry or convey on a dray.
  • noun A squirrel's nest. Also written drey.
  • noun An obsolete variant of deray.
  • noun A low, strong cart with stout wheels, used for carrying heavy loads. Also called dray-cart.
  • noun A sledge; a sled; a rude sort of vehicle without wheels.
  • noun In forestry, a single sled used in dragging logs. One end of the log rests upon the sled.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A squirrel's nest.
  • noun A strong low cart or carriage used for heavy burdens.
  • noun A kind of sledge or sled.
  • noun a dray.
  • noun a heavy, strong horse used in drawing a dray.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A low horse-drawn cart, often without sides, and used especially for heavy loads.
  • noun A kind of sledge or sled.
  • noun variant spelling of drey, The nest of a squirrel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a low heavy horse cart without sides; used for haulage

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English draie, sledge, cart, from Old English dragan, to draw.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English draye, 1325-1375. Compare draeg- in Old English draegnet ("dragnet") and draġan ("to draw").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown

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Examples

  • However, the word dray must be archaic now for all practical purposes.

    languagehat.com: DRAY/DREY. 2005

  • Modeled after the big kids 'tractor pull, children ages 4-14 will pedal tractors pulling a dray, which is a weight.

    There Are So Many Things to Do With A Potato.... 2008

  • Modeled after the big kids 'tractor pull, children ages 4-14 will pedal tractors pulling a dray, which is a weight.

    Archive 2008-07-01 2008

  • I just discovered that a squirrel's nest is called a dray (4,160 Google hits) or drey (826).

    languagehat.com: DRAY/DREY. 2005

  • Clarence called a dray, and had all Flora's things conveyed to the house he was fitting up as his residence.

    Down The River Buck Bradford and His Tyrants Oliver Optic 1859

  • OK, realistically I don't move in any circles in which squirrels are discussed with any frequency, and I have no real evidence as to whether those who do would find "dray" current or archaic.

    languagehat.com: DRAY/DREY. 2005

  • And yes here in England 'dray' is used quite commonly as the description of a squirrels' nest.

    languagehat.com: DRAY/DREY. 2005

  • They were piled high with supplies and THE DAY OF TOR DISSONANCE yoked to two matched horned lizards apiece, the kind of dray animals who could handle smooth roads or rough trails with ease.

    The Day of the Dissonance Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1984

  • They were piled high with supplies and yoked to two matched horned lizards apiece, the kind of dray animals who could handle smooth roads or rough trails with ease.

    The Day of the Dissonance Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1984

  • Some, however, stayed to bring a kind of dray with them, and then, when these also had started, he could see Harry Scott moving slowly off in the waggon towards the town.

    A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 A Novel Harry Coghill 1871

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