Drays

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of heavy vehicle typically used for transporting goods over short distances
2. A four-wheeled cart designed for hauling heavy loads, often pulled by horses or oxen
3. A vehicle without a top that is used primarily for carrying bulky items or materials

Etymology: "Drays" is the plural of "dray," a low, open cart built for hauling heavy loads. The vehicle's name comes from a much older tool: the Old English "dræġe" meant a dragnet, a net pulled through water to catch fish. The word carries that sense of hauling and pulling, which fits a vehicle whose job is to drag weight along the road. The noun traces back through Middle English "draye" and "dreye" to a Proto-Germanic root, *dragǭ, which also gave the Old English verb "dragan," meaning to pull or draw. That same verb is the ancestor of the modern English "draw," so a dray and a drawing are distantly related through the idea of pulling. Continental cognates show the same pattern. Middle Low German "drāge" meant both a stretcher and a dray, while Middle High German "trage" meant a litter, a frame carried or dragged between people. In each case the word names something that is pulled or carried, and the cart inherited its name from that idea of drawing a load.

Synonyms: cart, wagon, barrow, handcart