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Webster 1913 Edition


Tray

Tray

,
Verb.
T.
[OF.
traïr
, F.
trahir
, L.
tradere
. See
Traitor
.]
To betray; to deceive.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Tray

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Trays
(#)
.
[OE.
treye
, AS.
treg
. Cf.
Trough
.]
1.
A small trough or wooden vessel, sometimes scooped out of a block of wood, for various domestic uses, as in making bread, chopping meat, etc.
2.
A flat, broad vessel on which dishes, glasses, etc., are carried; a waiter; a salver.
3.
A shallow box, generally without a top, often used within a chest, trunk, box, etc., as a removable receptacle for small or light articles.

Webster 1828 Edition


Tray

TRAY

,
Noun.
[L. trua.] A small trough or wooden vessel, sometimes scooped out of a piece of timber and made hollow, used for making bread in, chopping meat and other domestic purposes.

Definition 2024


tray

tray

See also: T-ray

English

Noun

tray (plural trays)

  1. (obsolete) Trouble; annoyance; anger.
Derived terms
  • half in tray and teen

Etymology 2

From Middle English trayen, treien, from Old English tregian (to trouble, harass, vex), from Proto-Germanic *tregōną (to become tedious, become lazy, sadden), from Proto-Indo-European *dregʰ- (unwilling, sullen, slack).

Verb

tray (third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To grieve; annoy.

Etymology 3

From Middle English treye, from Old English trēġ, trīġ (wooden board, tray), from Proto-Germanic *trawją (wooden vessel), from Proto-Indo-European *drAuk-, *drAuḱ- (a kind of vessel), from *dóru (tree). Cognate with Old Norse treyja (carrier), Old Swedish trø (wooden grain measure), Low German Treechel (dough trough), Ancient Greek δρουίτη (drouítē, tub, vat), Sanskrit द्रोण (droṇa, trough). More at tree.

Noun

tray (plural trays)

  1. A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, rigid object upon which things are carried.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess:
      Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.
    I carefully arranged the dishes on the tray and brought it upstairs.
  2. A flat carrier for items being transported.
    Make sure that tray of eggs is properly loaded.
  3. The items on a full tray.
    Before long they had consumed a whole tray of shrimp cocktails and sent for another.
  4. A component of a device into which an item is placed for use in the device's operations.
    The CD tray will not open.
    The loader is responsible for placing the work on the trays for the plating machines.
  5. (computing, graphical user interface, informal)  A notification area used for icons and alerts.
    • 2007, Brian Livingston, Paul Thurrott, Windows Vista Secrets
      [] some developers try to use it that way for some reason (some applications inexplicably minimize to the tray rather than to the taskbar as they should).
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

tray (third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

  1. (transitive) To place items on a tray.
    Be sure to tray eggs with the large end up.
  2. (intransitive) To slide down a snow-covered hill on a tray from a cafeteria.
    Traying has provided collegiate fun and the occasional fatality for decades.

Etymology 4

From Middle English trayen, from Old French trair (to betray), from Latin tradō (hand over, betray). More at betray.

Verb

tray (third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To betray.

Anagrams