array

Definition

Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.

Etymology

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar Latin *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *raid or *raidā (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Compare Old English rād (“condition, stipulation”), Old High German antreitī (“order, rank”). Doublet of ready.

Example Sentences

• "Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride."
• "In this Remembrance Emily e’re day / Aroſe, and dreſs’d her ſelf in rich Array […]"
• "The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!"