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Bark vs Bray - What's the difference?

bark | bray |

In intransitive terms the difference between bark and bray

is that bark is to make a clamor; to make importunate outcries while bray is to make a harsh, discordant sound like a donkey's bray.

In transitive terms the difference between bark and bray

is that bark is to speak sharply while bray is to make or utter with a loud, discordant, or harsh and grating sound.

As a proper noun Bray is

{{surname|lang=en}.

bark

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) barken, berken, borken, from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs (said of animals, especially dogs).
    • The neighbour's dog is always barking .
    The seal barked as the zookeeper threw fish into its enclosure.
  • To make a clamor; to make importunate outcries.
  • * (rfdate), Tyndale.
    • They bark , and say the Scripture maketh heretics.
  • * (rfdate), Fuller
    • Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed. .
  • To speak sharply.
    • The sergeant barked an order.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=January 5 , author=Mark Ashenden , title=Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=While McCarthy prowled the touchline barking orders, his opposite number watched on motionless and expressionless and, with 25 minutes to go, decided to throw on Nicolas Anelka for Kalou.}}
    Usage notes
    Historically, bork'' existed as a past tense form and ''borken as a past participle, but both forms are now obsolete.
    Derived terms
    * bark up the wrong tree * barking * barking dogs never bite * bebark * dogs bark *
    Synonyms
    * latrate (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The short, loud, explosive sound uttered by a dog.
  • A similar sound made by some other animals.
  • (figuratively) An abrupt loud vocal utterance.
  • * circa 1921 , The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , vol 11:
    • Fox’s clumsy figure, negligently dressed in blue and buff, seemed unprepossessing; only his shaggy eyebrows added to the expression of his face; his voice would rise to a bark in excitement.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) bark, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia bark)
  • (countable, uncountable) The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree.
  • * '>citation
    • Moving about 70 miles per hour, it crashed through the sturdy old-growth trees, snapping their limbs and shredding bark from their trunks.
  • (medicine) Peruvian bark or Jesuit's bark, the bark of the cinchona from which quinine is produced.
  • The crust formed on barbecued meat that has had a rub applied to it.
  • * 2009 , Julie Reinhardt, She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book , page 151:
    • This softens the meat further, but at some loss of crunch to the bark .
    Usage notes
    Usually uncountable; bark may be countable when referring to the barks of different types of tree.
    Synonyms
    * (exterior covering of a tree) rind
    Related terms
    * ringbark * paperbark * stringybark

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To strip the bark from; to peel.
  • To abrade or rub off any outer covering from.
    • to bark one’s heel
  • To girdle.
  • To cover or inclose with bark, or as with bark.
    • bark the roof of a hut

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) , from Egyptian b?re .

    Alternative forms

    * barque

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A small sailing vessel, e.g. a pinnace or a fishing smack; a rowing boat or barge.
  • (poetic) a sailing vessel or boat of any kind.
  • * circa 1609 , William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116:
    • It is the star to every wandering bark
  • * circa 1880 , among the Poems of Emily Dickinson:
    • Whether my bark went down at sea, Whether she met with gales,
  • (nautical) A three-masted vessel, having her foremast and mainmast square-rigged, and her mizzenmast schooner-rigged.

    • Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    bray

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) braire, from ).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • Of a donkey, to make its cry.
    • Whenever I walked by, that donkey brayed at me.
  • Of a camel, to make its cry.
  • To make a harsh, discordant sound like a donkey's bray.
    • He threw back his head and brayed with laughter.
  • To make or utter with a loud, discordant, or harsh and grating sound.
  • * Milton
    • Arms on armour clashing, brayed / Horrible discord.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • And varying notes the war pipes brayed .
  • * Gray
    • Heard ye the din of battle bray ?

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The cry of an ass or donkey.
  • The cry of a camel
  • Any harsh, grating, or discordant sound.
  • * Jerrold
    • The bray and roar of multitudinous London.
    Synonyms
    * hee-haw

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) breier (Modern French broyer).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To crush or pound, especially with a mortar.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xxvii. 22
    • Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
  • * 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 141:
    • Their heads and shoulders are painted red with the roote Pocone brayed to powder, mixed with oyle [...].
  • (British, chiefly Yorkshire) By extension, to hit someone or something.
  • * 2011 , , Butchers Perfume'' from ''The Beautiful Indifference , Faber and Faber (2011), page 25:
    • If anything he brayed him all the harder - the old family bull recognising his fighting days were close to over.