bray

verb

1. (intransitive)Of an animal (now chiefly of animals related to the ass or donkey, and the camel): to make its cry.

   “Whenever I walked by, that donkey brayed at me.”

   “When she went to the famous ass-race [...], it was not, like other ladies, to hear those poor animals bray, nor see fellows run naked, or to hear country squires in bob wigs and white girdles make love at the side of a coach and cry, "Madam, this is dainty weather."”

   “Henry [IV of France], paſſing through a little town, ſaw ſeveral deputies coming up to harangue him. One of them having commenced his diſcourſe, was interrupted by an aſs, who began to bray. "Gentlemen," cried the King, "one at a time, if you pleaſe."—”

   “The horse neighs, but the ass brays: the last is performed by a very loud, long, disagreeable, discordant cry, consisting of discords alternately sharp and flat. He seldom brays but when pressed with hunger or love. [...] When gelded, the ass brays with a low voice; and, though he makes the same efforts and the same motions of the throat, yet the sound reaches to no great distance.”

2. (broadly, intransitive)To make a harsh, discordant sound like a donkey's bray.

   “He threw back his head and brayed with laughter.”

   “Heard ye the din of battle bray, / Lance to lance, and horſe to horſe? / Long Years of havock urge their deſtined courſe, / And thro' the kindred ſquadrons mow their way.”

   “"But, Jack, it's all so circumstantial—you said so yourself," Brammel brayed, never stronger than when demonstrating that two positives made a negative.”

3. (transitive)To make or utter (a shout, sound, etc.) discordantly, loudly, or in a harsh and grating manner.

   “[N]ow ſtorming furie roſe, / And clamour ſuch as heard in Heav'n till now / Was never, Arms on Armour claſhing bray'd / Horrible discord, and the madding Wheeles / Of brazen Chariots rag'd; [...]”

   “Just then the chiefs their tribes arrayed, / And wild and garish semblance made, / The chequered trews, and belted plaid, / And varying notes the war-pipes brayed, / To every varying clan; [...]”

4. (archaic, transitive)To crush or pound, especially using a pestle and mortar.

   “Though thou ſhouldeſt bray a fool in a morter among wheate with a peſtell, yet will not his fooliſhneſſe depart from him.”

   “Their heads and ſhoulders are painted red with the roote Pocone brayed to powder, mixed with oyle, this they hold in ſommer to preſerue them from the heate, and in winter from the cold.”

   “They boyle it alſo, and after dry it and bray it, and of this bran, with egges, hony, milke, and butter of Cocos, they make Florentines, and verie good belly-timber.”

5. (British, Yorkshire, broadly, transitive)To hit (someone or something).

   “If anything he brayed him all the harder – the old family bull recognising his fighting days were close to over.”

noun

1. The cry of an animal, now chiefly that of animals related to the ass or donkey, or the camel.
2. (broadly)Any discordant, grating, or harsh sound.

   “It seems a very nest—warm and snug, and green—for human life; with the twilight haze of time about it, almost consecrating it from the aching hopes and feverish expectations of the present. Who would think that the bray and roar of multitudinous London sounded but some sixty miles away?”

   “[...] Mr. [Edmund] Gosse's blank verse is sweet and varied, and full mostly of a graceful melody. If it has not the trumpet's power, neither has it the trumpet's bray, but rather a flute-like tone of its own.”

   “At full volume, Doreen's whinnying laugh could shatter glass. Even at half volume, her high-pitched brays rattled teeth.”

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