deraign
deraign verb: to prove or refute, especially through combat.
Verb
deraign (third-person singular simple present deraigns, present participle deraigning, simple past and past participle deraigned)
- To prove or refute, especially through combat.
- To engage in battle or combat.
- Therewith they gan to hurtlen greedily, / Redoubted battaile ready to darrayne, / And clash their shields, and shake their swords on hy [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To determine or decide by combat; to fight out.
- Now everything I had or sought, I've lost; / Upon a glimpse, I am disparadised. / So: go defiant to the nether world, / And darreign^([sic]) Lucifer's dread minions to / Worse torment than thou wouldst do thyself.2001, Scott Lynch-Giddings, A Fancyfull Historie of that Most Notable & Fameous Outlaw Robyn Hood, San Jose, Calif.: Writers Club Press, →ISBN, page 108
- To ready or prepare for combat.
Forms of deraign
| third-person singular present | deraigns |
|---|---|
| present participle | deraigning |
| past participle | deraigned |
| past | deraigned |
| alternative form | darraign |
| alternative form | darraigne |
| alternative form | darrain |
| alternative form | darraine |
| alternative form | darrayn |
| alternative form | darrayne |
| alternative form | derain |
| alternative form | dereine |
| alternative form | dereyne |
Origin of deraign
Inherited from Middle English dereynen, from Old French deraisnier (“to explain, defend, to maintain in legal action by proof and reasonings”), from Late Latin derationare (“to discourse, contend in law”).
Questions about deraign
- What does deraign mean?
- Deraign means to prove or refute, especially through combat.
- What part of speech is deraign?
- Deraign is a verb.
- What is the past tense of deraign?
- The past tense of deraign is deraigned.
Words near deraign in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deraign (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “deraign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deraign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.