foray
Americannoun
-
forays
plural
verb (used without object)
-
forays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forayed,
past participle, past
-
foraying
present participle
-
to make a raid; pillage; maraud.
-
to invade or make one's way, as for profit or adventure.
foreign industries foraying into U.S. markets.
verb (used with object)
-
forays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forayed,
past participle, past
-
foraying
present participle
noun
-
a short raid or incursion
-
a first attempt or new undertaking
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foraysimple
-
forayssimple
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have forayedperfect
-
has forayedperfect
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am forayingprogressive
-
are forayingprogressive
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is forayingprogressive
-
have been forayingperfect progressive
-
has been forayingperfect progressive
Past
-
forayedsimple
-
had forayedperfect
-
was forayingprogressive
-
were forayingprogressive
-
had been forayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foray
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English forraien, apparently by back formation from forrayour, forreour, forrier, from Old French forrier, fourrier, equivalent to fo(u)rr(er), derivative of fuerre “provender” ( see forage) + -ier -ier 2
Explanation
Foray means brief excursion. If you're in the army, that's a literal excursion into enemy territory. For the rest of us, it means trying something out. "My foray into rugby ended with my spending a week in the hospital." This word derives from the Latin fuerre 'straw', which led into Old French as fourager 'forage,' or search for food. Think of soldiers stealing food from the enemy as maybe how this word first came to be used. Even if that is historically inaccurate, your foray into amateur word-sleuthing will help you remember this word.
Vocabulary lists containing foray
To Kill a Mockingbird
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 1–6
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Although the film was Tom Cruise’s earliest foray into action-adventure, emerging before 1986’s “Top Gun” buried its cultural legacy, any fresh Hollywood face could have played Scott’s fairy-tale hero.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
Self-driving car company Waymo said Tuesday it will launch its robotaxis in the German city of Munich next year, marking the US group's first foray into the European Union.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Nvidia’s foray into the financing world is unlike any risk it has taken in the 30-odd years since its founding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
This marks his first foray into sports ownership, although he will not join Liverpool's board.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
They ran for arms, clapped on their bronze, and mustered under Eupeithes at the town gate for his mad foray.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Rollins also crossed over to a non-jazz audience with occasional forays into rock, most notably his appearances on The Rolling Stones' 1981 album "Tattoo You."
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
"I just happened to be given two gloves and I got into the habit of wearing them," Rai said of his early forays into the game.
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
When Tesla reports quarterly earnings on Wednesday, the numbers could once again play second fiddle to narrative details about the company’s futuristic forays into robotaxis and humanoid robots.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026
The global prominence of K-pop provided a model for training and a ready fanbase for its zingy, powerfully sung forays through pop, club and hip-hop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
As a result, Jamestown and the other Virginia forays survived on Indian charity—they were “utterly dependent and therefore controllable,” in the phrase of Karen Ordahl Kupperman, a New York University historian.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Before he forayed into creating board games, Mr Teuber worked as a dental technician.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2023
He launched his label in 2006 and has since collaborated on a collection with Target and forayed into home goods with Schumacher.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
Rafelson forayed into film direction with "Head", a movie written and produced by Nicholson starring the Monkees, in 1968.
From Reuters ● Jul. 25, 2022
Her parents have also forayed into the reality show world.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2019
I have my mother’s thin blood, the kind so easily forayed by a chilly draft, an unexpected rain.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
Several major investment and private equity firms are also foraying into the private credit market to fill the chasm created in tech funding, especially debt financing, by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March.
From Reuters ● Jun. 29, 2023
As Ford sped forward, a sea of red-coated musicians cavorted and pranced across the south end of the field, foraying past the 20-yard line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
Their sit-and-wait technique involved male baboons hovering around urban perimeters before foraying into the city.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 26, 2018
While Fletcher and his students are foraying into other applications of the mobile microscope, such as examining your skin or testing for malaria and Tb, MIT’s Ramesh Raskar has become known as the ‘Eye Guy.’
From Forbes ● Jul. 1, 2014
For I knew that if I only kept quiet I should see that which I had never yet seen—the home-coming of our famous foraying Duke.
From Red Axe by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
