braying

verb

present participle of bray
as in grinding
to reduce to fine particles bray the seeds using a mortar and pestle

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of braying Vanessa Bonet of the installation art group Dedo Vabo watched over a mission-control monitor deck, as the buzzing craft climbed into room full of braying hippos in rumpled suits. — Los Angeles Times, 13 Apr. 2026 The first of the three legs in an inaugural fundraiser called the Wagora Bike Ride unspools along rocky red clay roads and through rutted jeep tracks, past braying herds of zebra and startled warthogs. — Tom Vanderbilt, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Mar. 2026 The need to placate a braying mob of X posters desperate to see Lemon in chains does not constitute an emergency. — Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2026 Shortly after the New Year's ball drops (only once) in New York City, the Zohran Mamdani era will begin in the Big Apple and the political horses will be braying at the gates to start the 2026 midterm election season in earnest. — James Powel, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025 The cool, quiet spring air is punctuated only by Kasbah’s small pack of mules braying nearby, and the tinkling of the riad’s fountain. — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 10 Oct. 2025 As the insignias are cut off his uniform and his sword broken, Dreyfus (played by Louis Garrel) loudly declares his innocence, both to his brothers-in-arms and to the braying public outside the gates. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for braying
  1. grinding
  2. pounding
  3. crushing
  4. beating
Verb
  • For decades, junior accountants learned their trade by reconciling accounts, manually entering data, and grinding through the month-end close.
    — Sam Birchall, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
  • This innovation—the mass manufacture of ammonia, vastly more efficient than scraping guano off remote islands or grinding mountains of bison bones—removed the most critical nutrient bottleneck in global agriculture.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of grinding
Verb
  • Groups of young people were seen dancing with music pounding through the crowd as meters away tear gas billowed into the air.
    — Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
  • At the moment, the good detective is strutting around the float, kicking the wheels and pounding the floorboards.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of pounding
Verb
  • That album, like the Dio Sabbath classics before it, was fine-tuned for metalhead appreciation, thick with crushing riffs and dramatic vocals.
    — Brad Sanders, Pitchfork, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Elsewhere, Leipzig bounced back from heavy defeats against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid by crushing Elversberg 4-0.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of crushing
Verb
  • The automaker just cut the high end of its forecast and saw its share price drop, even while beating expectations for the quarter.
    — Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The Dodgers-Yankees series lasted five games, and the Dodgers beat up on the Yankees when the Yankees weren’t beating themselves.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of beating

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Cite this Entry

“Braying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/braying. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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