English

Noun

tray ‎(plural trays)

1. (obsolete) Trouble; annoyance; anger.

Derived terms

• half in tray and teen

Etymology 2

From Middle English trayen, treien, from Old English tregian ‎(“to trouble, harass, vex”), from Proto-Germanic *tregōną ‎(“to become tedious, become lazy, sadden”), from Proto-Indo-European *dregʰ- ‎(“unwilling, sullen, slack”).

Verb

tray ‎(third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To grieve; annoy.

Etymology 3

From Middle English treye, from Old English trēġ, trīġ ‎(“wooden board, tray”), from Proto-Germanic *trawją ‎(“wooden vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *drAuk-, *drAuḱ- ‎(“a kind of vessel”), from *dóru ‎(“tree”). Cognate with Old Norse treyja ‎(“carrier”), Old Swedish trø ‎(“wooden grain measure”), Low German Treechel ‎(“dough trough”), Ancient Greek δρουίτη ‎(drouítē, “tub, vat”), Sanskrit द्रोण ‎(droṇa, “trough”). More at tree.

Noun

tray ‎(plural trays)

1. A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, rigid object upon which things are carried.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess:

     Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

   I carefully arranged the dishes on the tray and brought it upstairs.‎

2. A flat carrier for items being transported.

   Make sure that tray of eggs is properly loaded.‎

3. The items on a full tray.

   Before long they had consumed a whole tray of shrimp cocktails and sent for another.‎

4. A component of a device into which an item is placed for use in the device's operations.

   The CD tray will not open.‎

   The loader is responsible for placing the work on the trays for the plating machines.‎

5. (computing, graphical user interface, informal)  A notification area used for icons and alerts.
   • 2007, Brian Livingston, Paul Thurrott, Windows Vista Secrets

     […] some developers try to use it that way for some reason (some applications inexplicably minimize to the tray rather than to the taskbar as they should).

Derived terms

• ashtray
• in-tray
• meat tray
• out-tray
• tray-table
• TV tray

Translations

Verb

tray ‎(third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

1. (transitive) To place items on a tray.

   Be sure to tray eggs with the large end up.

2. (intransitive) To slide down a snow-covered hill on a tray from a cafeteria.

   Traying has provided collegiate fun and the occasional fatality for decades.

Etymology 4

From Middle English trayen, from Old French trair ‎(“to betray”), from Latin tradō ‎(“hand over, betray”). More at betray.

Verb

tray ‎(third-person singular simple present trays, present participle traying, simple past and past participle trayed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To betray.

Anagrams

• arty , Arty