Dictionary

deraign en · VERB

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English dereynen, from Old French deraisnier (“to explain, defend, to maintain in legal action by proof and reasonings”), from Late Latin derationare (“to discourse, contend in law”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To prove or refute, especially through combat.
2. (ambitransitive, obsolete) To engage in battle or combat.
   • Therewith they gan to hurtlen greedily, / Redoubted battaile ready to darrayne, / And clash their shields, and shake their swords on hy [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
3. (obsolete, transitive) To determine or decide by combat; to fight out.
   • Now everything I had or sought, I've lost; / Upon a glimpse, I am disparadised. / So: go defiant to the nether world, / And darreign^([sic]) Lucifer's dread minions to / Worse torment than thou wouldst do thyself. 2001, Scott Lynch-Giddings, A Fancyfull Historie of that Most Notable & Fameous Outlaw Robyn Hood, San Jose, Calif.: Writers Club Press, →ISBN, page 108:
4. (obsolete, transitive) To ready or prepare for combat.

Forms