Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Array
Ar·ray′ (ăr·rā′), n. [OE. arai, arrai, OF. arrai, arrei, arroi, order, arrangement, dress, F. arroi; a (L. ad) + OF. rai, rei, roi, order, arrangement, fr. G. or Scand.; cf. Goth. raidjan, garaidjan, to arrange, MHG. gereiten, Icel. reiði rigging, harness; akin to E. ready. Cf. Ready, Greith, Curry.] 1. Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle; as, drawn up in battle array.
Wedged together in the closest array. Gibbon.
2. The whole body of persons thus placed in order; an orderly collection; hence, a body of soldiers.
A gallant array of nobles and cavaliers. Prescott.
3. An imposing series of things.
Their long array of sapphire and of gold. Byron.
4. Dress; garments disposed in order upon the person; rich or beautiful apparel. Dryden.
5. (Law) (a) A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impaneled in a cause. (b) The panel itself. (c) The whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
To challenge the array (Law), to except to the whole panel. Cowell. Tomlins. Blount. — Commission of array (Eng. Hist.), a commission given by the prince to officers in every county, to muster and array the inhabitants, or see them in a condition for war. Blackstone.
Ar·ray′, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Arrayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Arraying.] [OE. araien, arraien, fr. OE. arraier, arreier, arreer, arroier, fr. arrai. See Array, n.] 1. To place or dispose in order, as troops for battle; to marshal.
By torch and trumpet fast arrayed, Each horseman drew his battle blade. Campbell.
These doubts will be arrayed before their minds. Farrar.
2. To deck or dress; to adorn with dress; to cloth to envelop; — applied esp. to dress of a splendid kind.
Pharaoh . . . arrayed him in vestures of fine linen. Gen. xli.42.
In gelid caves with horrid gloom arrayed. Trumbull.
3. (Law) To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them man by man. Blackstone.
To array a panel, to set forth in order the men that are impaneled. Cowell. Tomlins.
Syn. — To draw up; arrange; dispose; set in order.