tray

¹

[trey]

noun

1. a flat, shallow container or receptacle made of wood, metal, etc., usually with slightly raised edges, used for carrying, holding, or displaying articles of food, glass, china, etc.

2. a removable receptacle of this shape in a cabinet, box, trunk, or the like, sometimes forming a drawer.

3. a tray and its contents.

   to order a breakfast tray from room service.

tray

²

[trey]

noun

Australian Slang.

1. a coin worth threepence.

tray

/ treɪ /

noun

1. a thin flat board or plate of metal, plastic, etc, usually with a raised edge, on which things can be carried

2. a shallow receptacle for papers, etc, sometimes forming a drawer in a cabinet or box

Word History and Origins

Origin of tray¹

before 1050; Middle English; Old English trēg, trīg; cognate with Old Swedish trö corn measure; akin to tree

Origin of tray²

1895–1900; compare earlier argot trey, tray three, a set of three, probably ultimately < Italian tre (< Latin trēs three ); trey

Word History and Origins

Origin of tray¹

Old English trieg ; related to Old Swedish trö corn measure, Old Norse treyja carrier, Greek driti tub, German Trog _trough

Example Sentences

At the front of the room stood the bishop, who blessed the bread and water in Spanish before passing the trays around for the congregation.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Its laser cutters can load their own sheets of metal, like giant printers with automated feeder trays.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Plastic food containers and trays are stacked and wired with lights, feeling at once like retro-futuristic inventions and something cobbled together after the apocalypse.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At holidays or graduations or milestone birthdays, we’d joke about phantom hunger pangs, gesturing to the empty spot where the foil tray should’ve been.

Read more on Salon

Mark Hargreaves runs a trolley and tray manufacturing and export business in Peckham, south London.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• plate