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Foray   /fˈɔreɪ/   Listen
Foray

noun
1.
A sudden short attack.  Synonyms: maraud, raid.
2.
An initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence).



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"Foray" Quotes from Famous Books



... would have taken an apple out of a market-wagon, or stolen a melon from a farmer who came to town with it; but they would all have thought it fun, if not right, to rob an orchard or hook a watermelon out of a patch. This would have been a foray into the enemy's country, and the fruit of the adventure would have been the same as the plunder of a city, or the capture of a vessel belonging to him on the high seas. In the same way, if one of the boys had seen a circus-man drop a quarter, he would have hurried ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells

... feasting and rejoicing among the relations of the successful warriors; but sounds of grief and wailing were heard from the hills adjacent to the village: the lamentations of women who had lost some relative in the foray. ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester

... for dances and music. But her frame was of iron, and incapable of fatigue; she galloped ninety miles after her last defeat without a pause save to change horses. She loved risk and adventure and the ring of arms; as she rode in a foray to the north the swordsmen beside her heard her wish she was a man "to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk on the cawsey with a jack and knapschalle, a Glasgow buckler and a broadsword." But in the closet she was as cool and astute ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green

... the giddy cornice Rua lifted his eyes, And again beheld men passing in the armpit of the skies. "Foes of my race!" cried Rua, "the mouth of Rua is true: Never a shark in the deep is nobler of soul than you. There was never a nobler foray, never a bolder plan; Never a dizzier path was trod by the children of man; And Rua, your evil-dealer through all the days of his years, "Counts it honour to hate you, honour to fall by your spears." And Rua straightened his back. "O Vais, a scheme ...
— Ballads • Robert Louis Stevenson

... me, sir. I thought that her testimony would be necessary; and I have also brought down her cousin, who was present at the foray in which my father and mother were killed. My account will ...
— At the Point of the Bayonet - A Tale of the Mahratta War • G. A. Henty

... the religion of Rome in its original form, before it accepted foreign modifications. Its gods are spirits of the woods and fields, of the market, of the foray, of the treaty, of all the aspects, in fact, which life had borne to the tribes of Central Italy, especially to the Latins and the Sabines who combined to form the state of Rome. These gods form no family and have no history, they do not, like the ...
— History of Religion - A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems • Allan Menzies

... and to impair its strength. This, Sir, is the sum and substance of all I said on the subject. And this constitutes the attack which called on the chivalry of the gentleman, in his own opinion, to harry us with such a foray among the party pamphlets and party proceedings of Massachusetts! If he means that I spoke with dissatisfaction or disrespect of the ebullitions of individuals in South Carolina, it is true. But if he means that ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... plate in common use was gone, but the costly services and ornaments that had been the glory of old Mr. Fulmort's heart; and the locks had not been broken but opened with a key; the drawing-rooms had been rifled of their expensive bijouterie, and the foray would have been completely successful had it included the jewels. There were no marks of a violent entrance; windows and doors were all fastened as usual, with the single exception of the back door, which was found ajar, but with no traces of having been ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... of grief at the departure of his friends. He had built a palisaded village not far from Port Royal, and here were mustered some four hundred of his warriors for a foray into the country of the Armouchiquois, dwellers along the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Western Maine. One of his tribesmen had been killed by a chief from the Saco, and he was bent on revenge. He proved himself a sturdy beggar, pursuing Pontrincourt with daily petitions,—now ...
— Pioneers Of France In The New World • Francis Parkman, Jr.

... heard various conflicting reports) was agreed upon against the tribes of the north, especially those who had molested our expedition—the Fadeea. It was highly successful, and may perhaps be useful in procuring respect for future travellers. Two thousand men went out upon this foray, in which Abd-el-Kader was accompanied by Astakeelee, the Sultan of the Kailouees. Some, indeed, say that the latter only acted. Very little resistance was made, and I hear of only one man being killed. The fellow who stole Barth's maharee was compelled to restore him. Dr. Barth, however, ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2 • James Richardson

... scepticism," he said; "but I can't believe that. Now you fellows must go. The dragon will be here to start you if you stay any longer. Serve him right, though, Roberts, to let him go on this mad foray, for he'd get wounded, and be brought back and ...
— Fix Bay'nets - The Regiment in the Hills • George Manville Fenn

... keenly this indignity. She brooded over it—sleepless and without appetite. Some days afterwards, as her father was preparing with his horsemen to make a foray against his foes, his glance fell on Djaida, and seeing how altered she was in face, and dejected in spirit, he refrained from saying anything, thinking and hoping that she would surely become herself ...
— Oriental Literature - The Literature of Arabia • Anonymous

... prospective foray in Mexico would require the service of all the dare-devils who could be enlisted, did not scruple to conciliate this outlaw, nor to give him an inkling of warlike preparations against the Spaniard. Pierce, flattered by this confidence, readily volunteered ...
— A Dream of Empire - Or, The House of Blennerhassett • William Henry Venable

... 1302. Military operations were almost entirely confined to ravaging; but, in February 1302-3, Comyn completely defeated at Rosslyn, near Edinburgh, an English army under Sir John Segrave and Ralph de Manton, whom Edward had ordered to make a foray in Scotland about the beginning of Lent. In the summer of 1303, the English king, roused perhaps by this small success, and able to give his undivided attention to Scotland, conducted an invasion on a larger ...
— An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) • Robert S. Rait

... lord. She is said to have chiefly owed her celebrity to the gratitude of an English captive, a beautiful child, whom she rescued from the tender mercies of Wat's moss-troopers, on their return from a foray into Cumberland. The youth grew up under her protection, and is believed to have been the composer both of the words and the music of many of the best old songs of ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... chieftains have gone, Like the course of the fire-flaught the clansmen pass'd on, With the lance and the shield 'gainst the foe they have boon'd them, And have ta'en to the field with their vassals around them; Then raise your wild slogan-cry—on to the foray! Sons of the heather-hill, pinewood, and glen, Shout for M'Pherson, M'Leod, and the Moray, Till the Lomonds ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... my wife near crazy. An' it made me Hell-Bent Wade!... She ran off from me there, an' I trailed her all over Colorado. An' the end of that trail was not a hundred miles from where we stand now. The last trace I had was of the burnin' of a prairie-schooner by Arapahoes as they were goin' home from a foray on the Utes.... The little girl might have toddled off the trail. But I reckon she was hidden or dropped by her mother, or some one fleein' for life. Your men found ...
— The Mysterious Rider • Zane Grey

... play, And sweep at bowls the stake away. None can a lustier carol bawl; The needfullest among us all, When time hangs heavy in the hall, And snow comes thick at Christmas-tide, And we can neither hunt, nor ride A foray on the Scottish side. The vowed revenge of Bughtrig rude, May end in worse than loss of hood. Let Friar John, in safety, still In chimney-corner snore his fill, Roast hissing crabs, or flagons ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... and when we add that the heads of both were all waving with the gorgeous plumage of the eagle, we can easily fancy that the appearance of these two must have been rather splendid and imposing. Quite the reverse, however, as regarded the third savage, who in a recent foray into the white settlements, having contrived to get his pilfering hands on a new broadcloth coat, with bright metal buttons, and a ruffled shirt, had added these two pieces of civilized finery to his Indian gear—thus imparting to his whole appearance, which had ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... anxious inquiries for Leonard; but it was not sorrow brought visibly before him, and after the decorous space of commiseration, the smiles were bright again, and Mary heard how her father had popped in to boast of his daughter being 'as good as a house-maid, or as Miss What's-her-name;' and her foray in the kitchen was more diverting to Aubrey than she was as yet prepared to understand. 'Running away with the buttered toast from under the nose of a charwoman! let Harry never talk of taking a Chinese battery after that!' her incapacity of perceiving that the deed ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... former were known as "Highlanders," the latter as the "Lower-Party." In the zeal of service both were apt to make blunders, and confound the property of friend and foe. "Neither of them, in the heat and hurry of a foray, had time to ascertain the politics of a horse or cow which they were driving off into captivity, nor when they wrung the neck of a rooster did they trouble their heads whether he crowed for ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... interest for the cause. If it were 20,000 tracts for Kansas, the thought never entered my head to stint the number—only to tramp up and down Broadway for advertisements to pay for them. If to meet expenses of The Revolution, it was not to pinch clerks or printers, but to make a foray upon some money-king. None but the Good Father can ever begin to know the terrible struggle of those years. I am not complaining, for mine is but the fate of almost every originator or pioneer who ever has opened up a way. I have the joy of knowing ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... them. The tribunals have other interests to defend than those of justice. The diplomatic body does not represent a country, but a coterie. The educating body has the mission not to teach, but to prevent the spread of instruction. The taxes are not a national assessment, but an official foray for the profit of certain ecclesiastics. Examine all the departments of the public administration: you will everywhere find the clerical element at war with the nation, and of course ...
— The Roman Question • Edmond About

... Bakwains, I was treated as conniving at their resistance, and my house was destroyed, my library, the solace of our solitude, torn to pieces, my stock of medicines smashed, and our furniture and clothing sold at public auction to pay the expenses of the foray. ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume 19 - Travel and Adventure • Various

... about metallic wealth were added to this report; and when, in 1529, Nuno de Guzman governed Mexico he set out northwards, first to conquer the sedentary Indians of Michhuacan, and then to search for the gold and jewels of the Amazons.[8] It was while on this foray that he heard of the Seven Cities in connection with Ciguatan. This latter place was reached; and, while the fancies concerning it were speedily dispelled by reality, those concerning the Seven Cities flitted further ...
— Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico; Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos • Adolphus Bandelier

... all Spanish, which these people had obtained from the fierce Comanches, who had taken them in raids on the Mexican border. They also met some of the Comanches themselves and were invited to join them in a foray into New Mexico. But La Salle had, necessarily, long since given up his mad scheme of conquest and was thinking only of extricating himself ...
— French Pathfinders in North America • William Henry Johnson

... heard o' the bauld Juden Murray, The Lord o' the Elibank Castle sae high? An' wha hasna heard o' that notable foray, Whan Willie o' Harden was catched wi' ...
— Tales From Scottish Ballads • Elizabeth W. Grierson

... almost comic disproportion between the matter and the manner, especially in the epic details of Lessing's onslaughts on the nameless herd of German authors. It is as if Sophocles should have given a strophe to every bullock slain by Ajax in his mad foray upon the Grecian commissary stores. He is too fond of striking an attitude, and his tone rises unpleasantly near a scream, as he calls the personal attention of heaven and earth to something which Lessing himself would have thought a very matter-of-course affair. He who lays it down as ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell

... did it pause. Here a seven-story fireproof building confronted it, and proved equal to the task. Against the solid walls of this barrier the impetuous visitor beat in vain, and then, just as suddenly as he had begun his foray, he subsided. The final sputter of his dying, under the hose streams of his foes, sounded for all the world like a chuckle. It was as if this wandering creature had signified that he had accomplished his purpose in giving the department a good scare, and that he might as well ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

... foray into a little side pocket of bedroom for the changing of shoes, whitening of noses, and various ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst

... bow, mighty youth, in the foray, Dread gleam'd thy brand in the proud field of glory; And when heroes sat round in the Psalter of Tara, His counsel was sage as ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... the others on a projected foray," Tayoga whispered back. "But look beyond him, Dagaeoga, and you will see one more to be dreaded than De ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... so. That morning, however, he made several excursions into it, and told me that his youthful satire of the 'Spectre Pig' had been provoked by a poem of the elder Dana's, where a phantom horse had been seriously employed, with an effect of anticlimax which he had found irresistible. Another foray was to recall the oppression and depression of his early religious associations, and to speak with moving tenderness of his father, whose hard doctrine as a minister was without effect upon his ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... aloft, and poked up within reach, and at this sign of surrender even the most desperate lost heart and joined the more cowardly. It was a strange collection of weapons stacked on the deck—guns, cutlasses, knives and pistols of every description, relics of many a foray, some apparently very old. Probably all had not been delivered, yet there was such a pile, I felt no further fear of the few pieces remaining hidden. It was not my intention that the villains should have the slightest chance ...
— Wolves of the Sea • Randall Parrish

... on the correi, Sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray, How sound is thy slumber! Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain, Thou ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... of "On to Quebec" was heard for some time. Port Royal was retaken by a French vessel. Parties of Indians, encouraged by the Jesuits, again stole over the border and did the familiar work. Schuyler, on the English side, succeeded in making a successful foray in 1691; and a fort was built at Pemaquid—to be taken, five years afterward, by Iberville and Castin. In 1693 an English fleet, which had been beaten at Martinique, came to Boston with orders to conquer Canada; but as it was manned ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... made their submission, but lived on unmolested in the hills, really outlawed, but not coming in collision with the authorities enough to have their condition inquired into. They had sometimes attacked Yorkist parties, sometimes resisted Scottish raids, or even made a foray in return, and they were well used to arms. These all had full equipments, and some more coin in their pouches than they cared to avow. Three or four of them brought an ox, calf or sheep, or a rough pony loaded with provisions, and driven by a herd ...
— The Herd Boy and His Hermit • Charlotte M. Yonge

... that at the time when he was least expected, and at the place where he was least wanted, he was sure to turn up.[17] The suddenness and speed with which he could move a body of troops seemed marvelous to ordinary men. His business now was to make a vigorous dashing foray down the valley. To the westward, Fremont lay in the mountains, with an army which checked no enemy and for the existence of which in that place no reasonable explanation could be given. In front was Banks, with a force lately ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse

... Sahib, what is asked of us should have been in the written message to our Raja. We be decoits, that is true, it is our profession, but the mission that is spoken of is not thus. Hunsa has ridden with Amir Khan upon a foray into Hyderabad, and he knows that the Chief is always well guarded, and that to try for his head in the midst of his troops would be like the folly ...
— Caste • W. A. Fraser

... this practice seems to have been gradually abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temim. Naman, king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter of Kais, chief of Temim, who fell in love with one of her captors and refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive all his future female children, which he did, ...
— The Women of the Arabs • Henry Harris Jessup

... High Street. Passers-by turned to stare, but otherwise she was unrecognized. There was a new five-and-ten-cent store, and Finley Brothers had added an ell. High Street was paved. She made a foray down into the little side street where she had spent those queerly remote first seventeen years of her life. How dim her aunt seemed! The little unpainted frame house was gone. There was a lumber yard on the site. Everything seemed to have shrunk. The street was narrower and ...
— The Vertical City • Fannie Hurst

... and with bells so that the earth resounds; and on their heads are painted faces of giants and other kinds of great beasts. On the back of each one of them are three or four men, dressed in their quilted tunics, and armed with shields and javelins, and they are arrayed as if for a foray. Then, turning to the troops on foot, there are so many that they surround all the valleys and hills in a way with which nothing in the world can compare. You will see amongst them dresses of such rich cloths that I do not know where they came from, nor could any one tell ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell

... fairy tale.—There were two brothers, sons of the chief of our clan, but as different in appearance and disposition as two men could be. The elder was fair-haired and strong, much given to hunting and fishing; fighting too, upon occasion, I daresay, when they made a foray upon the Saxon, to get back a mouthful of their own. But he was gentleness itself to everyone about him, and the very soul of honour in all his doings. The younger was very dark in complexion, and tall and slender compared to his brother. He was very fond of book-learning, which, they say, was ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various

... bold in their attack and do not hesitate to assault strong villages, they have no scruples against seizing or killing members of small parties or the inhabitants of isolated dwellings.[85] It is necessary that the raiders secure at least one victim, otherwise another foray must be made at once. The body of the slain is opened, the liver is extracted and is eaten by the warriors who thus "become like Mandalangan."[86] The head, forearms, and lower part of the legs are carried back to the ...
— The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao - The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition • Fay-Cooper Cole

... by what he remembered of the other domestic details—that the house had been planned with reference to sudden foray or escape reawakened his former uneasy reflections. Zeenie, who had been watching his face, added, "It's no slouch, when b'ar or painters hang round nights and stampede the stock, to be able to swing yourself on to a boss whenever you hear ...
— Snow-Bound at Eagle's • Bret Harte

... foray Sir Raif got a clour, Sir Raif the regairdless, In battle sae dour. O cleanly the ...
— The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots • David Rorie



Words linked to "Foray" :   try, air raid, endeavour, displume, penetration, endeavor, pillage, take, attempt, perforate, penetrate, deplume, incursion, swoop, air attack, effort



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