Definitions

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

  • noun A sudden raid or military advance.
  • noun A venture or an initial attempt, especially outside one's usual area.
  • intransitive verb To make a raid.
  • intransitive verb To make inroads, as for profit or adventure.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To ravage; pillage.
  • To engage in a foray; pillage.
  • noun The act of foraging; a predatory excursion.
  • noun Synonyms Incursion, Raid, etc. See invasion.

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

  • noun A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid.
  • transitive verb To pillage; to ravage.

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

  • 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 transitive To scour (an area or place) for food, treasure, booty etc.
  • verb intransitive To pillage; to ravage.

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

  • noun an initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence)
  • noun a sudden short attack
  • verb briefly enter enemy territory
  • verb steal goods; take as spoils

Etymologies

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

[Middle English forrai, from forraien, to plunder, probably back-formation from forreour, raider, plunderer, from Old French forrier, from forrer, to forage; see forage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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 *fōdran (“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, fōþor ("food, fodder, covering, case, basket"), Dutch voeder ("forage, food, feed"), Danish foder ("fodder, feed"), Icelandic fóðr ("fodder, sheath"). More at fodder, food.

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