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Neigh vs Bray - What's the difference?

neigh | bray |

As nouns the difference between neigh and bray

is that neigh is the cry of a horse while bray is the cry of an ass or donkey.

As verbs the difference between neigh and bray

is that neigh is to make its cry while bray is of a donkey, to make its cry.

As a proper noun Bray is

{{surname|lang=en}.

neigh

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The cry of a horse.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of a horse) to make its cry
  • to make a sound similar to a horses' cry
    • This fake laughter sounds like a horse neighing .
  • (obsolete) To scoff or sneer.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • neighed at his nakedness

    See also

    * whinny * nicker

    Anagrams

    * English words not following the I before E except after C rule

    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.