Tray

Pronunciation

• enPR: trā, IPA: /treɪ/
• Homophones: trait (one pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English traye, treie, from Old English trega ("misfortune, misery, trouble, grief, pain"), from Proto-Germanic *tregô ("mourning"), from Proto-Indo-European *dregʰ- ("unwilling, sullen, slack"). Cognate with Icelandic tregi ("sorrow, grief"), Gothic (trigo, "grief").

Full definition of tray

Noun

1. (obsolete) Trouble; annoyance; anger.

Derived terms

• half in tray and teen

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

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

From Middle English treye, from Old English trēġ, trīġ (""), 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 (drouítē, "tub, vat"), Sanskrit (droṇa, "trough"). More at tree.

Noun

1. A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, rigid object upon which things are carried.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 2, 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.
2. I carefully arranged the dishes on the tray and brought it upstairs.
3. A flat carrier for items being transported.
   Make sure that tray of eggs is properly loaded.
4. The items on a full tray.
   Before long they had consumed a whole tray of shrimp cocktails and sent for another.
5. 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.
6. (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

• in-tray
• meat tray
• out-tray
• tray-table
• TV tray

Verb

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.

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

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To betray.

Anagrams

• arty , Arty