beray

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ ray (“to defile”), from Middle English rayen, an aphetic form of array.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈɹeɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophone: bewray

Verb

beray (third-person singular simple present berays, present participle beraying, simple past and past participle berayed)

1. To make foul; befoul; soil.
   • 1603, Plutarch, “Of Superstition”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 261:

     [U]pon a vaine and fooliſh ſuperſtition, enjoining men to begrime and beray themſelves with durt, to lie and vvallovv in the mire, to obſerve Sabbaths and ceaſe from vvorke, to lie proſtrate and groveling upon the earth with the face dovvnevvard, to ſit upon the ground in open place, and to make many ſtrange and extravagant adorations.

   • 1652, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, John French (as J. F.) (translator), Three Books of Occult Philosophy,

     Also it is said, that if a woman take a needle, and beray it with dung, and then wrap it up in earth, in which the carkass [carcass] of a man was buryed [buried], and shall carry it about her in a cloth which was used at the funerall, that no man shall be able to ly [have sex] with her as long as she hath it about her.

Anagrams

• Bayer, Beary, Earby, Yebra, barye, beary, by ear, yerba