dray
1
9.9
- noun
- /dreɪ/
- Archaic
:
carro
- A wagon came up the street, two large drays pulling it, and a boy sitting on the bench with a piece of Johnson grass in his mouth.
- dray horse
- drays and wagons
- a large dray
Examples
-
He also bought the Findlays' supplies of raw materials, hired their few remaining employees, slave and free, and even rented their mules and dray.
Academic text (2007) -
His first job, upon graduating from the 8th grade, was running the dray in 1916: two horses and a buckboard.
Blog text (19) -
Jimmy, you know what you feed a dray horse in the morning -if you want a day's work out of him?
-
They've been working him like a dray horse.
Fiction book (1992) -
The omnibus was stationary again, behind a large brewer's dray.
Fiction book (1993) -
He looked down at the street, the drays clattering by, a coster shouting at a barrow boy who was stuck in his path.
Fiction book (1993) -
In 1903, the New Haven Evening Register noted that "the spectacle of well-dressed collegians on the seat of drays attracted attention wherever they went."
Academic text (1994) -
The air buzzed like a beehive with ordinary conversations accompanied by the clop of dray horses' hooves against the cobbles of Orchard Street.
Fiction book (1992) -
She frowned at him, pulling away from his touch, and drew off the sidewalk into the street, stepping between the drays loaded with barrels of oysters, watermelon, and lumber.
Fiction book (1996) -
The farmer used a dray to transport the hay from the fields to the barn.
Synonyms
297
1.0
A small vehicle with wheels that you push or pull to carry things
A large cart pulled by a horse that carries goods or people
A large vehicle like a truck that carries heavy loads
Compounds
How Heavy
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word dray comes from an old word meaning 'to drag' or 'pull' and shares the same root as the common word drag. That's why a dray is a low, heavy cart that is literally 'dragged' by horses to carry goods.