tray.
A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, and rigid object upon which things are carried.
Meaning & usage
A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, and rigid object upon which things are carried.
I carefully arranged the dishes on the tray and brought it upstairs.
Make sure that tray of eggs is properly loaded.
The items on a full tray.
Before long they had consumed a whole tray of shrimp cocktails and sent for another.
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.
A notification area used for icons and alerts.
A type of retail or wholesale packaging for CPUs where the processors are sold in bulk and/or with minimal packaging.
The platform of a truck that supports the load to be hauled.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English trey, from Old English trēġ, trīġ (“wooden board, tray”), from Proto-West Germanic *trauwi, from Proto-Germanic *trawją (“wooden vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *drewo-, *dóru (“tree; wood”). Cognate with Old Norse treyja (“carrier”), Old Swedish trø (“wooden grain measure”), Low German Treechel (“dough trough”), Ancient Greek δροίτη (droítē, “tub, vat”), Sanskrit द्रोण (droṇa, “trough”). Related to trough and tree.
to place (items) on a tray
Be sure to tray eggs with the large end up.
to slide down a snow-covered hill on a tray from a cafeteria.
Traying has provided collegiate fun and the occasional fatality for decades.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English trey, from Old English trēġ, trīġ (“wooden board, tray”), from Proto-West Germanic *trauwi, from Proto-Germanic *trawją (“wooden vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *drewo-, *dóru (“tree; wood”). Cognate with Old Norse treyja (“carrier”), Old Swedish trø (“wooden grain measure”), Low German Treechel (“dough trough”), Ancient Greek δροίτη (droítē, “tub, vat”), Sanskrit द्रोण (droṇa, “trough”). Related to trough and tree.
trouble; annoyance; anger
Where this word comes from
From Middle English traye, treie, from Old English trega (“misfortune, misery, trouble, grief, pain”), from Proto-Germanic *tregô (“mourning”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreǵʰ- (“unwilling, sullen, slack”). Cognate with Icelandic tregi (“sorrow, grief”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌲𐍉 (trigō, “grief”).
to grieve; to annoy
Where this word comes from
From Middle English trayen, treien, from Old English tregian (“to trouble, harass, vex”), from Proto-West Germanic *tregōn, from Proto-Germanic *tregōną (“to become tedious, become lazy, sadden”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreǵʰ- (“unwilling, sullen, slack”).
to betray
Where this word comes from
From Middle English trayen, from Old French trair (“to betray”), from Latin tradō (“hand over, betray”).
A gay trans person, particularly a man (a man who is both transgender and gay)
Where this word comes from
Blend of trans + gay.
Alternative form of trey (“third branch of deer's antler”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.