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:
Politics isn’t her first foray into a field where women are underrepresented.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
Before his foray into Spider-Man-related projects, Cage portrayed Johnny Blaze in the 2007 movie “Ghost Rider” and its sequel, “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
But her foray into topical talk has lit a fire in her spirit.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
OpenAI’s foray into advertising got off to a bumpy start, initially charging some large brands a steep rate of about $60 per 1,000 views whether or not users clicked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The goat then trotted into Herbie’s yard and ate a copy of Portnoy’s Complaint, which the volunteer had carelessly left on his front stoop during a foray into town for baloney, beer, and cheese.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
The economic pressure has been matched by increasing forays by Chinese aircraft and warships close to Japan, and a stream of diplomatic invective invoking Japan’s wartime past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Josko Gvardiol: Figured at left-back but was always willing to lend his weight to City's attacking forays.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
One of Parton’s first forays into purer pop, this single has the stomp and shuffle of funk and could easily be retrofitted into disco DJ sets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
New Zealand's Defence Force privately warned that Beijing's naval forays and ballistic missile tests would become a "persistent" feature of the Pacific, according to an internal document obtained by AFP last month.
From Barron's ● Jul. 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
Inspired by saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, Lee forayed into jazz, picking up his first bass while attending Morehouse College in Atlanta.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2023
Besides its core markets of Malaysia and Bangladesh, Edotco has built up a portfolio of towers in Myanmar and Cambodia, forayed into Indonesia last year and bought assets in the Philippines, among others.
From Reuters ● Mar. 13, 2023
Recently, the company even forayed into building a zero carbon emission racing vehicle to compete in the Baja 1000, a grueling Mexican off-road race approximately 850 miles long.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 6, 2021
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
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
Analysts are now scrutinising whether Grab can justify its valuations by turbocharging growth in its existing businesses and successfully foraying into digital banking.
From Reuters ● Apr. 28, 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
When he had reduced his enemies to the last extremity for want of provision, he was forced to give them battle, in the plains near Saguntum, to hinder them from foraying, and plundering the country.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Arthur Hugh Clough
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.
