foray
\ FAWR-ey, FOR-ey \,noun;
1.a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder: Vikings made a foray on the port .
2.a quick, sudden attack: The defenders made a foray outside the walls .
3.an initial venture: a successful foray into politics .
verb:
1.to make a raid; pillage; maraud.
2.to invade or make one's way, as for profit or adventure: foreign industries foraying into U.S. markets .
3.to ravage in search of plunder; pillage.
Quotes:
Having the true baronial spirit of the good old feudal times, they are apt now and then to issue forth from their castles on a foray , and lay the plebeian fields of the neighboring country under contribution…
-- Washington Irving, "Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists," 1821
Peter Sissen took out his penlight and made a shallow foray into the dining room, coming back to say, “One of them is still downstairs…"
-- Jeffrey Eugenides, "The Virgin Suicides," 1993
Origin:
Foray entered English in the late 14th century.It shares its roots with the term forage.
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