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Pray vs Bray - What's the difference?

pray | bray |

As verbs the difference between pray and bray

is that pray is to petition or solicit help from a supernatural or higher being while bray is of a donkey, to make its cry.

As an adverb pray

is please; used to make a polite request.

As a noun bray is

the cry of an ass or donkey.

As a proper noun Bray is

{{surname|lang=en}.

pray

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To petition or solicit help from a supernatural or higher being.
    • Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.
  • To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
  • (religion) to communicate with God for any reason.
  • (obsolete) To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I know not how to pray your patience.

    Derived terms

    * prayer * pray in aid

    Adverb

    (-)
  • please; used to make a polite request.
    • pray silence for…
  • * 1816 , (Jane Austen), , Volume 1 Chapter 8
    • "Pray , Mr. Knightley," said Emma, who had been smiling to herself through a great part of this speech, "how do you know that Mr. Martin did not speak yesterday?"
  • * Charles Dickens, , 1841:
    • Pray''' don’t ask me why, '''pray''' don’t be sorry, '''pray don’t be vexed with me!
  • * Frederick Marryat, , 1845:
    • Well, Major, pray tell us your adventures, for you have frightened us dreadfully.
  • * 1892 , (Arthur Conan Doyle),
    • Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue your most interesting statement.
  • * 2013 , Martina Hyde, Is the pope Catholic?'' (in ''The Guardian , 20 September 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/is-pope-catholic-atheists-gay-people-abortion]
    • He is a South American, so perhaps revolutionary spirit courses through Francis's veins. But what, pray , does the Catholic church want with doubt?

    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.