array

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.

   “Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride.”

   “In this Remembrance Emily e’re day / Aroſe, and dreſs’d her ſelf in rich Array […]”

2. (countable, uncountable)A collection laid out to be viewed in full.

   “The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!”

   “Upon leaving the center, I photographed the colorful array of petunias decorating the square in purple, pink, yellow, white, and magenta.”

3. (countable, uncountable)An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.

   “But the chivalry of France was represented by as gallant an array of nobles and cavaliers as ever fought under the banner of the lilies”

   “SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 — Pacific Gas & Electric, Northern California’s major utility, is announcing a commitment on Wednesday to purchase 550 megawatts of solar power to be generated by troughlike arrays of mirrors spread over nine square miles in the Mojave Desert.”

4. (countable, uncountable)Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.

   “drawn up in battle array”

   “wedged together in the closest array”

   “He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door. They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A large collection.

   “We offer a dazzling array of choices.”

   “Again his waves in milder tints unfold / Their long array of sapphire and of gold, / Mixt with the shades of many a distant isle, / That frown—where gentler ocean seems to smile.”

   “Mario Balotelli, in the headlines for accidentally setting his house ablaze with fireworks, put City on their way with goals either side of the interval as United struggled to contain the array of attacking talent in front of them.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A matrix.
7. (countable, uncountable)Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
8. (countable, uncountable)A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
9. (countable, uncountable)A militia.
10. (countable, uncountable)A group of hedgehogs.
11. (countable, uncountable)A microarray.

verb

1. To clothe and ornament; to adorn or attire.

   “He was arrayed in his finest robes and jewels.”

   “In a long purple pall, whose ſkirt with gold, / Was fretted all about, ſhe was arayd, […]”

   “However, hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.”

2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.

   “It is a noble ambition, and the forces arrayed against it are mighty.”

3. To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.

   “Alſo, though there be no perſonal objection againſt the ſheriff, yet if he arrays the panel at the nomination, or under the direction of either party, this is good cauſe of challenge to the array.”