Word.ws English Dictionary

deray

/dɪˈɹeɪ/

deray noun: disorder, disturbance.

Noun

deray

  1. (obsolete) Disorder, disturbance.
  2. impetuosity, prowess, vigour
  3. (archaic) Disarray, confusion.
    • […] the exasperated Whigs […] were the men in fact that wrought the most deray among the populace.1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 26
  4. (obsolete) Disorderly merriment; partying.
    • […] there were pipes and fiddles, and as much dancing and deray within as used to be at Sir Robert’s house at Pace and Yule, and such high seasons […]1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet

Verb

deray (third-person singular simple present derays, present participle deraying, simple past and past participle derayed)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To derange.
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To become deranged; to go wild.

Forms of deray

third-person singular presentderays
present participlederaying
past participlederayed
pastderayed

Origin of deray

From Old French derroi, desroi, desrei, from des- (from Latin dis-) + roi, rei, rai (“order”). See array and disarray.

Questions about deray

What does deray mean?
Deray means disorder, disturbance.
What part of speech is deray?
Deray can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce deray?
Deray is pronounced /dɪˈɹeɪ/.

Words near deray in the dictionary

  1. deratizing
  2. derats
  3. deratted
  4. deratting
  5. derattled
  6. deray
  7. derayed
  8. deraying
  9. derays
  10. Derazhnia
  11. Derbeian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deray (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: “deray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.