rayer

French

Etymology

From raie +‎ -er. Found in Old French as roier. Cf. however also Old French raier, rayer, possibly from Latin radiāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.je/, /ʁe.je/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

rayer

1. to line, to make lines on, to mark with lines (e.g. a piece of paper)
2. to cross out, to cross off (remove something from a list)

   Quand il arrivera, tu pourras rayer son nom. ― When he arrives, you can cross off his name.

3. to wipe off (remove)

   Je l’ai rayé du tableau. ― I wiped it off the board.

   J’ai rayé de la carte. ― I wiped off the map

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer, the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Derived terms

Further reading

• “rayer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.