Forms: 4–7 forray, (4 forra, 5 forr(e)y, 6 fory, forrow, 7 furrow), 9 foray. Pa. t. 6–7 forrai(e)d. [ultimately from Rom. *fodro (see FORAGE sb.); the precise formation and the mutual relation of the vb. and sb. are somewhat obscure.
The supposition most free from difficulties is perh. that the sb. 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 sb.). The alternative is to regard FORAY sb. as a derivative of OF. forrer to forage (see FORAGE sb.), 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. 1199.
| & þay 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, | |
| And sessit all that euir he fand. |
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.
| Proclaymed ioy and peace through all his state; | |
| For dead now was their foe, which them forrayed late. |
1644. D. Hume, Hist. Ho. Douglas, 167. Hee was scarce retired, when Creighton assembled his friends and followers so suddenly as none could imagine, furrowed the lands of Corstorphin.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., IV. xxiii.
| Ta’en on the morn she was a bride, | |
| When Roderick foray’d Devan-side. |
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. xxxix. 333. Bruce forayed Cumberland, and threatened Berwick.
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. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd., No. 29), 37. Certaine companies of English souldiers … hearing, as they forrowed abroad, spoyling the countrey, that the towne of Clermont was slenderly manned, assailed the same, and took it at the first brunt.
1593. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1597), § 174. Sum quha nightlie and dailie rieuis, forrayis, and committis open thieft, riefe and oppression.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 196.
| No more his bugle’s evening peal | |
| Bids vassal arm and yeoman ride, | |
| To drive the deer of Otterdale, | |
| Or foray on the Border side. |
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. xv. II. 162. The people of Granada resumed all at once their ancient activity, foraying into the Christian territories.
Hence Foraying vbl. sb., the action of the vb.
c. 1400. Maundev. (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.
