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Bray   Listen
verb
Bray  v. t.  (past & past part. brayed; pres. part. braying)  To pound, beat, rub, or grind small or fine. "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar,... yet will not his foolishness depart from him."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Bray" Quotes from Famous Books



... Mrs. Bray, in her General Preface prefixed to the first volume of the reprint, in series, of her Novels and Romances, when giving an account of the circumstances on which she founded her very graphic and interesting romance of ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850 • Various

... and listened to the soft rustling of the palm branches. The bray of a distant band saddened him with an unfathomable sense of homesickness. Through an air that seemed heavy with languid tropicality, and the waiting richness of life, he caught the belated glimmer of lights and ...
— Phantom Wires - A Novel • Arthur Stringer

... a mining gentleman from the northern wilds of British Columbia. He is a big man, a natural-born fighter. To prove this he inflicted a black eye and a split lip on Paul Lorimer, a broken nose and sundry bruises on James L. Brooks. Also Allen T. Bray and Edward Gurney Parkinson suffered certain contusions in the melee. The fracas occurred in the office of the Free Gold Mining Company, 1546 Broad Street, at three-thirty this afternoon. While hammering the brokers a police officer arrived on the scene and Wagstaff was ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... the prudent voice of friendship blame! She feels the sting of keen resentment goad, Though guiltless yet of satire's thorny road. Let other Quixotes, frantic with renown, Plant on their brows a tawdry paper crown! While fools adore, and vassal-bards obey, Let the great monarch ass through Gotham bray! Our poet brandishes no mimic sword, To rule a realm of dunces self-explored; 50 No bleeding victims curse his iron sway; Nor murder'd reputation marks his way. True to herself, unarm'd, the fearless Muse Through reason's path her steady course pursues: ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

... called to him, threw him kisses, had one of the wooden swords given him, and went through the motion of directing an orchestra. The fat boy hurled a handful of pretzels at the spot on the sidewalk where Daniel was standing; a trombone began to bray; the Englishman first stuck his head out of his cabriolet, and then got out and hopped over to Daniel, carrying a pole draped with women's clothes, including a feather hat and a veil. A new keg of beer was tapped on the Gambrinus ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann

... bray no more in your hearing, I will wish you good-night." And again he held out his hand to the ...
— The Bertrams • Anthony Trollope

... his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray. ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... confident hope of success in the next canvass. That one's cause will succeed because it ought to succeed is perhaps the most general and invincible folly affecting the human judgment Observation can not shake it, nor experience destroy. Though you bray a partisan in the mortar of adversity till he numbers the strokes of the pestle by the hairs of his head, yet will not this fool notion depart from him. He is always going to win the next time, however frequently and disastrously he has lost before. And ...
— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

... must all know something of the purging of the University and the Ministry of Aberdeen by the Covenanting General Assembly of 1640. These deposed Aberdeen doctors may have had too strong leanings to episcopacy in the Church and to absolutism in the State, but they were not Vicars of Bray. The first half of the century was adorned by a band of scholars, who have gained renown by their cultivation of Latin poetry; a little oasis in the desert of Aristotelian Dialectics. It would be needless ...
— Practical Essays • Alexander Bain

... song of foolishness, laughing stocks and cranks! The more there are the merrier; come join the ranks! Life is dry and stupid; whoop her up a bit! Donkeys live in clover; bray ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) • Various

... friends amused themselves with solo songs without accompaniment of an evening, and having a good tenor voice I was not unwilling to lead off with a song. Clearing my rusty throat with a ghrr-ghrr-hram which made them all jump, I launched forth with the "Vicar of Bray"—a grand old song and a great favorite of mine. They all started when I commenced, exchanging glances, and casting astonished looks towards me; but it was getting so dusky in the room that I could not feel sure that my eyes were not deceiving me. Presently ...
— A Crystal Age • W. H. Hudson

... usual. Jim is there. In front of us the German salient. All comparatively quiet. How lovely it is! The sounds of our men digging in the wet soil mingle now with other small noises. Voices underground. Listen. And a mouth-organ's cheery bray coming from the bowels of the earth. It is pitch-dark. We stand up like Generals surveying the battle-field. No danger. The ...
— Letters to Helen - Impressions of an Artist on the Western Front • Keith Henderson

... The sky was clear and cloudless. The Tatars were on their walls, the Russians in their trenches; the Imperial eagle standard, which Ivan had lately assumed, floated in the morning wind. The two armies were perfectly silent, save here and there the bray of a single trumpet, or beat of a naker drum in one or the other, and the continuous hum of the hymns and chants from the three Russian chapel- tents. The archers held their arrows on the string, the gunners stood with lighted matches. The copper-clad domes of the minarets ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge

... a watchful observer may see an unfortunate native sprawling on the ground in consequence of approaching too near one of the hybrid beasts. Chinese mules will kick as readily as their American cousins; and I can say from experience, that their hoofs are neither soft nor delicate. They can bray, too, in tones terribly discordant and utterly destructive of sleep. The natives have a habit of suppressing their music when it becomes positively unbearable, and the means they employ may be worth notice. A Chinaman says a mule cannot bray without elevating his tail to a certain height; ...
— Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar - Life • Thomas Wallace Knox

... in a fine house, and have grand dinners, and let Peggy Bray nearly starve in that old mud hut of hers, and Widow Tregellis there, with her six children, and no fire or clothing for them? I can't ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various

... sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, With rival-hating envy, set on you To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep; Which so rous'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums, With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, And grating shock of wrathful iron arms, Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace And make us wade even in our kindred's blood: Therefore we banish you our territories: You, cousin Hereford, upon ...
— The Tragedy of King Richard II • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]

... a populous place, and the millions of mules upon it bray hoarsely; but we leave all these behind, as well as the national standard, which flaunts over General Grant's late head-quarters, and steam past the mouth of the Appomattox to go ...
— Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, - and His Romaunt Abroad During the War • George Alfred Townsend

... that he could never take it off, as that he never does. This hideous apparition, inconceivably drunk, has a terrible power of making a gong-like imitation of the braying of an ass: which feat requires that he should lay his right jaw in his begrimed right paw, double himself up, and shake his bray out of himself, with much staggering on his next-to-no legs, and much twirling of his horrible broom, as if it were a mop. From the present minute, when he comes in sight holding up his cards to the windows, and ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens

... though somewhat irreverent, manner of leading the responses of the congregation? It is well indeed that our churches, sadly given over to the laxity and carelessness of a bygone age, should be renovated and beautified, the tone of the services raised, and the "bray" of the old clerks, unsuited to the devotional feelings of a more enlightened day, silenced, but still a shade of regret will be mingled with their dismissal, if only for the sake of the large stock of amusing anecdotes which their ...
— The Parish Clerk (1907) • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... violate an established fact without a reasonable explanation, as this might cause a mistaken idea in the minds of the readers. A few good authors are: Dr. Keller, A Hyatt Verrill, Walter Kately and R. H. Romans.—Wayne Bray, Campbell, Missouri. ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 • Various

... too much about it for that. But there must have been something in that liking for you at first sight. I wish you no harm, Mr. Conyngham. I am like Balaam—I came to curse, and now stay to bless. Or, perhaps, I am more like Balaam's companion and adviser— I bray too much.' ...
— In Kedar's Tents • Henry Seton Merriman

... as regards nasal-screaming voices in the fact that a donkey cannot bray unless he at the same time lifts his tail—but if the tail be tied down, the beast must be silent. So the man or woman, whose voice like that of the erl-king's is "ghostly shrill as the wind in the porch of a ruined church," always raise their tones with their temper, ...
— The Mystic Will • Charles Godfrey Leland

... Christine Boieldieu, Francois A. Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas Bonnet, J. Bononcini, Giovanni M. Bora, Catherina von Boswell, James Bourdelot Boutmy, Josse or Jodocus Boutmy, Laurent Brahms, Johannes Brandt, Carolina Bray, Mrs Brebos, Gilles Brebos, Jean Brenner, Genofeva von Breunig, Eleanora von Breunig, Stephan von Bridgetower, George Augustus Polgreen Broschi, Carlo (see Farinelli) Browne, Countess von Browning, ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 • Rupert Hughes

... lire of the Deer oer of the Roo parboile it on smale peces. see it wel half in water and half in wyne. take brede and bray it wi the self broth and drawe blode er to and lat it seeth to gedre with powdour fort of gynger oer of canell [2]. and macys [3]. with a grete porcioun of vineger ...
— The Forme of Cury • Samuel Pegge

... mean in all innocence—leaves her window unlatched on St. Valentine's morn, that some gallant cavalier may—in all honesty, I mean—become her Valentine for the season, and suppose the gallant be discovered, may she not scream out as if the visit were unexpected, and—and—bray all this in a mortar, and then consider, will it be a matter to place the town in ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... integrity of history are to be found, may safely be left to the moral decision of men who do NOT look at History through the exclusive medium of the market, and in listening to the voice of instruction are, at least, enabled to distinguish the bray of an ass from the peal of a trumpet.) Is it not true, that they were the first to declare war upon this kingdom? Is every word in the declaration from Downing-Street, concerning their conduct, and concerning ours and that of our allies, so obviously ...
— Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke. • Edmund Burke

... somewhat inattentive to the little lecture on antiquities and novelties, and the cause of his restlessness was soon apparent, and indeed approaching. Lord Bulmer's sister, Juliet Bray, was coming slowly across the lawn, accompanied by one gentleman and followed by two others. The young architect was in the illogical condition of mind in which he ...
— The Man Who Knew Too Much • G.K. Chesterton

... originally formed part of his Masque of Alfred, first performed in 1740 at Cliefden, near Maidenhead. To Arne we are also indebted for the music of "Where the Bee sucks there lurk I." "The Vicar of Bray" is set to a tune originally known as "A Country Garden." "Come unto these yellow sands" we owe to Purcell; "Sigh no more, Ladies" to Stevens; "Home, ...
— The Pleasures of Life • Sir John Lubbock

... caused as much admiration as the three white men. Great was the astonishment when one of the donkeys began to bray. The timid jumped more than if a lion had roared beside them. All were startled, and stared in mute amazement at the harsh-voiced one, till the last broken note was uttered; then, on being assured that nothing in particular ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... Houed.] and two hundred barded horsses, besides seruitors on horssebacke, and footmen with crossebowes. Amongst other prisoners these are named, Matthew de Montmorancie, Gales de Ports, Iollen de Bray, and manie other also innumerable. King Richard hauing got this victorie, wrote letters thereof vnto the archbishops, bishops, abbats, earles and barons of his realme, that they might praise God for ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) - Richard the First • Raphael Holinshed

... lonely wading-birds were stalking about; one of these, the Curiaca (Ibis melanopis), flew up with a low cackling noise, and was soon joined by a unicorn bird (Palamedea cornuta), which I startled up from amidst the bushes, whose harsh screams, resembling the bray of a jackass, but shriller, disturbed unpleasantly the solitude of the place. Amongst the willow bushes were flocks of a handsome bird belonging to the Icteridae or troupial family, adorned with a rich plumage of black and ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... with a final bray the gramophone came to the end of its record, and Olga swept a great curtsey, threw down her scarf, and stepped off the dais. Georgie was sitting on the floor close to it, and jumped up, leading the ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... returned to this oppressive sod, most unwillingly, so pleasant and enjoyable it was to be a free spirit, and above all to be in such company, notwithstanding the great danger I was in. Now I had no one to comfort me save the Muse, and she was rather moody—scarcely could I get her to bray out these ...
— The Visions of the Sleeping Bard • Ellis Wynne

... love a man, only your idea of one. You will go on enjoying your mighty theories and dreams till suddenly the juice of that 'little western flower' drips on your eyelids, and then I shall have the pleasure of seeing you caress 'the fair large ears' of some donkey, and hang rapturously upon its bray, till you perhaps discover that he has pretended, on your account solely, to like roses, when he has a natural proclivity to thistles; and then, pitiable child! you will discover what you have been caressing, and—I spare you ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various

... ready to laugh than to admire when they hear the lions bray; for mewing and bleating, the taste, I fear, is ...
— Our Village • Mary Russell Mitford

... of great importance, because he has adopted some particular mode of dress, or the grimaces of those that call themselves fashionable people. Nor do I ever see Master Mash or Compton without thinking of the lion's skin, and expecting every moment to hear them bray." ...
— The History of Sandford and Merton • Thomas Day

... denomination, of which he was a member. But within ten years after his graduation from college Daniel Nash became a communicant of the Episcopal Church and began to study for Holy Orders. It was one of the quaint sayings attributed to him in later years that "you may bray a Presbyterian as with a pestle in a mortar, and you cannot get all of his Presbyterianism out of him," and when asked how he accounted for his own experience, "I was caught ...
— The Story of Cooperstown • Ralph Birdsall

... the groans of death and battle's bray Have rung discordant thro my turgid lay: The drum's rude clang, the war wolfs hideous howl Convulsed my nerves and agonized my soul, Untuned the harp for all but misery's pains, And chased the Muse from corse-encumber'd plains. Let ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow

... above all worldly wisdom, being composed, in his own words, of the "sinews and souls of all learning, wisdom, and truth." "We have example sacred enough," he said, "that true Poesy's humility, poverty, and contempt are badges of divinity, not vanity. Bray then, and bark against it, ye wolf-faced worldlings, that nothing but riches, honors, and magistracy" can content "I (for my part) shall ever esteem it much more manly and sacred, in this harmless and pious study, to sit until I sink into my grave, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867 • Various

... place, and for the memorial services, which were afterwards to be held in their honour. Some of the indentures between the King and Convent can be seen at the Record Office, others are in the custody of the Dean and Chapter. Sir Reginald Bray, head of the royal masons, is often spoken of as if he were the architect, but his death took place soon after the laying of the foundation stone, and the chapel was not finished for another sixteen years, long after Henry VIII.'s accession, when the monasteries were tottering to their fall. Abbot ...
— Westminster Abbey • Mrs. A. Murray Smith

... heavy hand the right. With broken arms and tortured frame To earth the fainting giant came, Like a huge cloud, or mighty rock Rent, sundered by the levin's shock. Then rushed they on, and crushed and beat Their foe with arms and fists and feet, And nerved each mighty limb to pound And bray him on the level ground. Keen arrows and each biting blade Wide rents in breast and side had made; But crushed and torn and mangled, still The monster lived they could not kill. When Rama saw no arms might slay The fiend who like a mountain lay, The glorious ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... crude western community cherished: the prestige of money, family, education, and that indefinable grace and courtesy of body and soul that we call charm. And Harvey people seemed to be made for him. He liked their candor, their strength, their crass materialism, their bray and bluster, their vain protests of democracy and their unconscious regard for his caste and culture. So whatever there was of egoism in his nature grew unchecked by Harvey. He was the young lord of the manor. However Harvey might hoot at his hat and gibe at his elided R's and mock his rather ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... law that I'll maintain Until my dying day, sir: That whatsoever king shall reign I'll still be vicar of Bray, sir! ...
— The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition • Upton Sinclair

... Darb el Ma'ala, or Medina Road, a caravan bearing the annual mahmal gift of money, jewels, fine fabrics, and embroidered coverings for the Ka'aba temple, cut loose with rifles and old blunderbusses. Dogs began to bark, donkeys to bray, camels to spit and snarl. The whole procession fell into an anarchy of ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England

... so serenely undervalue me at my first bray was more than I hoped for. So I brayed again, the good, old, sentimental bray, for which all Gallic lungs are ...
— The Maids of Paradise • Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

... that of Peoples too. Not by the crime of one class, but by the fatal obscuration, and all but obliteration of the sense of Right and Wrong in the minds and practices of every class. What a scene in the drama of Universal History, this of ours! A world-wide loud bellow and bray of universal Misery; lowing, with crushed maddened heart, its inarticulate prayer to Heaven:—very pardonable to me, and in some of its transcendent developments, as in the grand French Revolution, most respectable and ever-memorable. For Injustice reigns ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... tail, and legs attached, and just enough of life infused to make them move! No, the wild ass of the prairie is a large powerful, swift creature. He has the same long ears, it is true, and the same hideous, exasperating bray, and the same tendency to flourish his heels; but for all that he is a very fine animal, and often wages successful ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... suite is made up of themes actually learned from Chinese musicians. It represents the "Wedding of Aladdin and the Princess," a sort of sublimated "shivaree" in which oboes quawk, muted trumpets bray, pizzicato strings flutter, and mandolins (loved of ...
— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... Lawyer Bray was a mountainous man, about thirty-five years old; and he had impudence ingrained with his brawny meat and muscles, and his tongue, let loose, would run like a mill-stream. His head rose a little above his ears, and was huge of girth in a horizontal ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... passed a man, who snatched the woollen pelisse from the donkey's back, and went off with it. At this moment the donkey began to bray. ...
— Miscellanea • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... glory here. Nowhere else does he develop such a variety of forms—nowhere attain such an infinity of sizes—nowhere emit so impressive a bray. It is the Bray of Naples. "It is like the thunder of the night when the cloud bursts o'er Cona, and a thousand ghosts shriek at once in the ...
— The Dodge Club - or, Italy in 1859 • James De Mille

... time, so that all may be in readiness, the signal is given. Instead of all the party making the sounds of various animals, nothing is heard but a loud bray from the one ...
— Games For All Occasions • Mary E. Blain

... the Vicar of Bray tap, Palace Yard; and the jury, considering the neighbourhood, was tolerably respectable. The remains of the deceased were in a dreadful state of decomposition; and although chloride of lime and other antiseptic ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, October 9, 1841 • Various

... be added that in the human species, as Bray remarks ("Le Beau dans la Nature," Revue Philosophique, October, 1901, p. 403), "the hymen would seem to tend to the same end, as if nature had wished to reinforce by a natural obstacle the moral restraint of modesty, so that only the vigorous ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... If the Hartites secured the front seats in church she would have to own to defeat and humiliation. Was Hunt—could Hunt be faithless? He was known to be something of a toady, something of a Sergeant Eitherside, a Vicar of Bray sort of individual. To all appearance Hunt was a sworn Beatricite, but if by any chance he had heard something in favor of the Hartites, he was just the man to go over ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade

... gentleman, no gentleman! Aha-skulk off—do—low blaggurd!" shrieked Polly. From their counters shop-folks rushed to their doors. Stray dogs, excited by the clamour, ran wildly after the fugitive man, yelping "in madding bray"! Vance, fearing to be clawed by the females if he merely walked, sure to be bitten by the dogs if he ran, ambled on, strove to look composed, and carry his nose high in its native air, till, clearing the street, ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... had found failure was not a real musician Kreutzer knew. Too often had his trombone trespassed, with its brazen bray, upon the time which the composer had allotted to the soft, delightful flute, to leave the slightest doubt of its performer's rank incompetence. That he had failed was, therefore, easily understood; in no way did it indicate that all he said about the chances of a real musician in ...
— The Old Flute-Player - A Romance of To-day • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... had two qualities to recommend him to Englishmen—respectability and pluck. In an age when the clergy were as bad as the blackest sheep in their flocks, Jeremy was distinguished by purity of life; in an age when the only safety lay in adopting the principles of the Vicar of Bray, Jeremy was a Nonjuror, and of this nothing could cure him. The Revolution of 1688 was scarcely effected, when the fiery little partizan published a pamphlet, which was rewarded by a residence of some months in Newgate, not in capacity of chaplain. But he was scarcely let out, when ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton

... Zinzendorf's visit to London, in February, 1737, when it was suggested to him that such a mission should be begun by two Moravian men, under the auspices of "the associates of the late Dr. Bray". ...
— The Moravians in Georgia - 1735-1740 • Adelaide L. Fries

... officer. E.H. Burritt was first assistant, the writer was second assistant and commissary, and Samuel R. Bond was secretary. Among those who were selected for guard duty were David E. Folsom, Patrick Doherty (Baptiste), Robert C. Knox, Patrick Bray, Cornelius Bray, Ard Godfrey, and many other well known pioneers of Montana. We started with ox teams on this journey on the 16th day of June, traveling by the way of Fort Abercrombie, old Fort Union, Milk river and Fort Benton, bridging all the streams not fordable on the entire route. Fort Union ...
— The Discovery of Yellowstone Park • Nathaniel Pitt Langford

... good. This time, the king, t' insure success, Took for his aide-de-camp an ass, A creature of stentorian voice, That felt much honour'd by the choice. The lion hid him in a proper station, And order'd him to bray, for his vocation, Assured that his tempestuous cry The boldest beasts would terrify, And cause them from their lairs to fly. And, sooth, the horrid noise the creature made Did strike the tenants of the wood with dread; And, as they headlong fled, All fell within the lion's ambuscade. ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... Emperor as the outstanding dignified figure in the controversy. Such behavior is not calculated to invite confidence, and not likely to induce this enemy-surrounded nation to put its destinies in such hands, not at any rate for some time to come. "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not ...
— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier

... Bray's History of English Critical Terms. A vocabulary of 1400 critical terms used in literature and art, with critical and historical data for ...
— Textiles • William H. Dooley

... elevated coal strata may have composed the dry land from which the sandy matters of these strata were washed. Such a deposit as the Wealden almost necessarily implies a local, not a general condition; yet it has been thought that similar strata and remains exist in the Pays de Bray, near Beauvais. This leads to the supposition that there may have been, in that age, a series of river- receiving estuaries along the border of some such great ocean as the Atlantic, of which that of modern Sussex ...
— Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation • Robert Chambers

... extraordinary ceremony took place there. A girl with a child in her arms rode upon an ass into St. Stephen's church, to represent the Flight into Egypt. The Introit, "Kyrie," "Gloria," and "Credo" at Mass ended in a bray, and at the close of the service the priest instead of saying "Ite, missa est," had to bray three times, and the people to respond in like manner. Mr. Chambers's theory is that the ass was a descendant of the cervulus or ...
— Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan • Clement A. Miles

... they drew, they put their brazen trumpets to their lips, and sounded a tremendous and ear-shattering blast; so that the whole space, just now so quiet and solitary, reverberated with the clash and clang of arms, the bray of warlike music, and the shouts of angry men. So enraged did they all look, that Cadmus fully expected them to put the whole world to the sword. How fortunate would it be for a great conqueror, if he could get a bushel of the dragon's ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... danger. Up the long avenue she ran toward the house, and, seizing the tiny lamp at the doorway, sped up the slope toward the inclosure where the two animals grazed, the flame making a trail of light like that of a firefly moving swiftly in the darkness. The bray rang out again, but there was no second sound of bleating. Inside the pasture gate she found the donkey anxiously sniffing at something that lay in the grass. Down on her knees went Daphne, for there lay ...
— Daphne, An Autumn Pastoral • Margaret Pollock Sherwood

... do it, Bray," broke in Dodge stiffly. "As for you fellows, the best thing you can all do is to go back to your cradles. Bray and I want to sleep the night through. And you've no ...
— Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point - Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life • H. Irving Hancock

... 'Bray-vo! An' not arf bad neither,' said Private Robinson approvingly. 'Though I dunno wot it's all abart. Now s'pose we ...
— Between the Lines • Boyd Cable

... high illustrious worth With all the dishes in long order go; In the midst, a form divine, Appears the fam'd Sir-loin; And soon with plums and glory crown'd, A mighty pudding sheds its sweets around. Heard ye the din of dinner bray? Knife to fork, and fork to knife: Unnumber'd heroes through the glorious strife, Through fish, flesh, pies, and puddings cut ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 333 - Vol. 12, Issue 333, September 27, 1828 • Various

... bray of indignation the monster sat upright on hind-quarters far more ponderous than those of a mammoth. Its tail, as thick at the base as the body of a bear, helped to support it, while its clumsy frame towered to a height of eighteen or twenty feet. Its hind legs were very ...
— In the Morning of Time • Charles G. D. Roberts

... eating grass. My brother Barry had one of these little burros, when we were in Texas, and every evening he would go to a lady's house for something to eat, although he had more than he could eat at home; and if she did not come to the window soon, he would bray as loudly as he could, and she would have to come out and give him something, even if it was only a lump of sugur. Good-bye,—From, ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various

... the Lion was in the act of springing on the Ass, the Cock sent forth a loud and shrill crow. The Lion took to his heels at once, and ran off as fast as he could. The Ass saw this, and thought that the Lion was running off through fear of him. So he gave a great bray, and threw up his head, and started to chase the runaway King of Beasts. But they had not gone far in this way when the Lion turned round. He soon saw that there was but an Ass behind him; so he stood still in his flight, laid hold of the poor Ass, and soon ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... of Bray, in Berkshire, was a papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth; he was a papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth.[59] When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... detachment of horse into the surrounding country, captured and brought to camp the wives of all the prominent gentlemen who fought with Berkeley. Perhaps Mrs. Price only escaped by being on board the ship Despair. Madame Bray, Madame Page, Madame Ballard and Madame Bacon, the wife of Bacon's cousin, were among the number. These women were placed before the workmen in the trenches to protect them from the ...
— The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story - of Bacon's Rebellion) • John R. Musick

... fancy the sleepers starting up dazed by the sudden bray of the trumpets and the wild shout of that war-cry yelled from every side. As they stumbled out of their tents, without leaders, without knowledge of the numbers of their foe, and saw all around the flaring torches, and heard the trumpet-blasts, which seemed to speak of an immense attacking force, ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... the threat— Whereat from the earth on which he lay [47] To all the echoes, south and north, And east and west, the Ass sent forth A long and clamorous bray! [48] 465 ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth

... war mare mast chart damp warp share cask lard hand warm spare mask arm land ward snare past yard sand warn game scar lake waft fray lame spar dale raft play name star gale chaff gray fame garb cape aft stay tame barb shame staff bray ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... liberty, but Henry thought only the hope of plunder would keep the army together.[455] Waiting for the imperial contingent under De Buren, Suffolk did not leave Calais till 19th September. He advanced by Bray, Roye and Montdidier, capturing all the towns that offered resistance. Early in November, he reached the Oise at a point less than forty miles from the French capital.[456] But Bourbon's treason had been discovered; instead of joining Suffolk ...
— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... Hennes and see hem as to fore. bray almandes blaunched, and temper hem up with the self broth. and alye the fleissh with the mylke and white flour of Rys. and boile it. & do erin powdour of gyngur sugar and look at it ...
— The Forme of Cury • Samuel Pegge

... noo," she said, as she seated herself at length beside the other. "The gowk, Geordie Bray!" she went on, "—to tak it intill's oogly heid 'at the cratur wad be hurklin' here! It's no the place for ane 'at has to hide 's heid for verra shame o' slippin' aff the likes o' himsel' upo' sic a braw mither! Could he get nae ither door ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... supplies. But bad news came to hand from the south-west. Under urgent pressure from the Czar, Schwarzenberg had pushed forward two columns from Troyes towards Paris: one of them had seized the bridge over the Seine at Bray, a day's march below Nogent: the other was nearing Fontainebleau. Napoleon was furious at the neglect of Victor to guard the crossing at Bray, and reluctantly turned away from Bluecher to crush these columns. His men marched or were carried in vehicles, by way of Meaux and Guignes, ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... my bredderin, He's stepped aside, my sisterin, He's clared de track, my chillun, Now make do trumpets bray! We tanks you kindly, Masta, We gibs you tanks, ole Masta, You is a buckra Masta, Whateber ...
— Sea and Shore - A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs" • Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield

... of the ass has made her as famous in war as in literature. She is a marked feature everywhere in military stations, alike in the camp and the field, and her bray always in the minor key, gives a touch of pathos to the music of the band! The ass accompanied Deborah and Barak when they went to fight their great battle, she has gone with pioneers in all their weary wanderings, and ...
— The Woman's Bible. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... her arm she went out across the dry grass to where a little black mule, not much larger than a goat, was standing. Beck greeted her with a bray astonishing for one of her size, and a switch with her rope of a tail. Unheeding the cheerful greeting, Religion gave all her attention to untying the halter, and soon they were going along the sandy ...
— Shapes that Haunt the Dusk • Various

... a Farmer, who had an Ass. It was the habit of this Ass to lift up his voice and bray, whenever he heard the church bells a-ringing. Now in the country where this Farmer lived, they used to believe that a man's soul passes when he dies into an animal, or something else. So this Farmer thought ...
— The Talking Thrush - and Other Tales from India • William Crooke

... choir of elevated souls unknown to us by name, merely called after the city they inhabited, such as the Master of Bray, or by some odd device or monogram—what cannot be written of this small army which praised the Lord, His mother and the saints in form and colour, on missals, illuminated manuscripts, or on panels! The Antwerp Museum has its share of Anonymous, that master of whom it has been said that "he" was ...
— Promenades of an Impressionist • James Huneker

... gases chemically we have the wetness back again. But if a body loses its vitality, its life, can we by the power of chemistry, or any other power within our reach, bring the vitality back to it? Can we make the dead live? You may bray your living body in a mortar, destroy every one of its myriad cells, and yet you may not extinguish the last spark of life; the protoplasm is still living. But boil it or bake it and the vitality is gone, and all the art and science of mankind cannot bring ...
— The Breath of Life • John Burroughs

... immense literary output. Doubtless not a few of the works so chosen are open to criticism, but they will at least serve to illustrate certain stages in the growth of Historical Romance. With the exclusion of Mrs. Radcliffe, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Gore, Lady Blessington, Lady Fullerton, Mrs. Bray, and Mrs. Child, few will, I imagine, find fault; but writers like Miss Tucker (A. L. O. E.) and Miss Emily Holt still find so many readers in juvenile quarters, that it has required a certain amount of courage to place them also on my Index Expurgatorius! ...
— A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales • Jonathan Nield

... brambles found; Where vines now creep, let thistles curse the ground; Dry in her thousand valleys be the rills; Barren the cattle on her thousand hills; Where Power is placed, let tigers prowl for prey; Where Justice lodges, let wild asses bray; Let cormorants in churches make their nest, And on the sails of Commerce bitterns rest; 290 Be all, though princes in the earth before, Her merchants bankrupts, and her marts no more; Much rather would I, might the will of Fate ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill

... Cigarette. "If we do a good thing, we hide it as if it were a bit of stolen meat, we are so afraid it should be found out; but, if they do one in the world there, they bray it at the tops of their voices from the houses' roofs, and run all down the streets screaming about it, for fear it should be lost. Dieu! ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... entirely inexperienced as we were, we made but little headway. As the day wore on, the darkness and silence grew very oppressive, and made us start nervously at the least thing. The sudden arrival of our donkey with its cart gave me a dreadful fright. The friendly beast greeted us with a joyous bray and rubbed its shaggy sides against us in the most companionable way. In the flickering light of my lamp I caught sight of its long ears waving over me—I don't believe I had seen three donkeys before in my life; ...
— Stories of Achievement, Volume IV (of 6) - Authors and Journalists • Various

... a tall superbly built figure combining the strength of a horse with the gentle curves of a hippo. When she spoke, her sweetly modulated voice was as pleasant to the ear as the bray of a Spanish jackass. Her hair hung to her waist and was the convenient nesting place for several English sparrows. She was slightly cockeyed from birth and had had her nose squashed in a saloon brawl. She carried herself with the graceful ...
— Astounding Stories, May, 1931 • Various

... into the spinal marrow of a gigantic object; totally ruinous to such object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals of War, was as much good got of so little fighting. You may, with labor and peril, plunge a hundred dirks into your boaconstrictor; hack him with axes, bray him with sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the one true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that can guide you well to that, he and it are the notable and ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XV. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... to teach the Donkey that it was not good manners to bray before the public, the Manager hit him on the nose with the ...
— The Adventures of Pinocchio • C. Collodi—Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini

... had succeeded in tuning his instrument, the teacher proceeded with his lucid explanations:—"Now, boys, start fair; give a grand chord. What sort of a noise do you call that? (giving a luckless boy a thump over the head with his fiddle-stick). You bray through your nose like a jackass. I tell you to quit; I don't want discord." The boy slunk out of the class, and ...
— Life in the Clearings versus the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... "'Perished here' will be exactly the fate of the author if I'm left to say it." The gallery would recognise the clown's voice, and all seriousness would be over for the evening. It was like the ass in the lion's skin—he would bray, and all would be betrayed. At last it was determined that the part should be divided; Follet should perform the actions of the ghost, while Thompson, in the wings, out of the sight of the audience, should pronounce the important words. The success of the experiment was signal. Follet, in a ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... getting late, we set about putting up our tent for the night, when suddenly our ass, who had been quietly grazing near us, began to bray furiously, erected his ears, kicking right and left, and, plunging into the bamboos, disappeared. This made us very uneasy. I could not submit to lose the useful animal; and, moreover, I was afraid his agitation announced the approach of some wild beast. The dogs and ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss

... of Bray Unknown The Lost Leader Robert Browning Ichabod John Greenleaf Whittier What Mr. Robinson Thinks James Russell Lowell The Debate in the Sennit James Russell Lowell The Marquis of Carabas Robert Brough A Modest Wit Selleck Osborn Jolly Jack William Makepeace Thackeray The King of Brentford William ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 4 (of 4) • Various

... with this exaltation of the moral sensibilities there is also an ardor of sacrifice, for the beloved deity's sake, of everything unworthy of him. Sometimes the spiritual ardor is so sovereign that purity is achieved at a stroke —we have seen examples. Usually it is a more gradual conquest. Billy Bray's account of his abandonment of tobacco is a good example of the latter ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... bray, I suppose,' Mr. Raikes struck in, across the table, negligently thrusting out his elbow ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... high the sparkling bowl, The rich repast prepare; Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast: Close by the regal chair Fell Thirst and Famine scowl A baleful smile upon their baffled guest. Heard ye the din of battle bray, Lance to lance, and horse to horse? Long years of havoc urge their destin'd course, And through the kindred squadrons mow their way. Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame, With many a foul and midnight murder fed, Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame, And spare ...
— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education

... then He sought his father's royal den, And brayed a bray. The lion started, The noble heart within him smarted. "You lion cub," he said, "your bray Proclaims where you pass night and day,— 'Midst coxcombs who, with shameless face, Blush not ...
— Fables of John Gay - (Somewhat Altered) • John Gay

... to know dat am de mule what belongs to Marster. I knows him by his bray", answered the negro, as he looked over the crowd and saw and felt no sympathy ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration

... Emperor Charles V. Young as Henry was, there was no youthful hot-headedness in his policy, which was moreover his own. But he selected his advisers with a skill inherited by his son; and the most notable members of the new King's Council were Reginald Bray; Morton, Bishop of Ely, who soon after became Archbishop of Canterbury and was later raised to the Cardinalate; and Fox, afterwards Bishop of Durham and then of Winchester, whose services were continued through the early years of the next reign. Warham, ...
— England Under the Tudors • Arthur D. Innes

... troop of horse artillery, and the 1st Regiment of Light Cavalry. This column had to advance under a severe fire, over very difficult ground, but when within a short distance of the enemy, the gallant 39th Regiment, as before, rushing forward, led by Major Bray, and gallantly supported by the 56th Regiment, under Major Dick, carried everything before them, and thus gained the intrenched main ...
— Our Soldiers - Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston

... Let the conqueror, flushed with glory, Bid his noisy clarions bray; Lovers tell their artless story In a whispered virelay. False is he whose vows alluring Make the listening echoes ring; Sweet and low when all-enduring Are the songs ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan



Words linked to "Bray" :   break up, let loose, let out, express mirth, cry, mash, utter, pulp, grind, fragment, mill, emit, fragmentise, express joy, laugh, comminute, pestle, hee-haw



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