Online Etymology Dictionary

dray (n.): mid-14c., Middle English noun derivative of Old English dragan "to draw," originally meaning a cart without wheels that has to be "dragged" (compare Old Norse draga "timber dragged behind a horse"); see drag (v.).
drayage (n.): 1791, "conveyance by dray," from dray + -age. Later also in reference to the fee for such.
drayman (n.): 1580s, from dray + man (n.).
dread (v.): late 12c., a shortening of Old English adrædan, contraction of ondrædan "counsel or advise against," also "to dread, fear, be afraid," from on- "against" + rædan "to advise" (see read (v.)). Cognate of Old Saxon andradon, Old High German intraten. Related: Dreaded; dreading. As a noun from 12c.
dreadful (adj.): early 13c., "full of dread," from dread (n.) + -ful. Meaning "causing dread" is from mid-13c.; weakened sense of "very bad" is from c. 1700. Related: Dreadfully.
dreadlocks (n.): 1960, from dread + locks (see lock (n.2)). The style supposedly based on that of East African warriors. So called from the dread they presumably aroused in beholders, but Rastafarian dread (1974) also has a sense of "fear of the Lord," expressed in part as alienation from contemporary society.
Dreadnought (n.): "battleship," literally "fearing nothing," from dread (v.) + nought (n.). Mentioned as the name of a ship in the Royal Navy c. 1596, but modern sense is from the name of the first of a new class of British battleships, based on the "all big-gun" principle (armed with 10 big guns rather than 4 large guns and a battery of smaller ones), launched Feb. 18, 1906.
dreads (n.): see dreadlocks.
dream (n.): mid-13c. in the sense "sequence of sensations passing through a sleeping person's mind" (also as a verb), probably related to Old Norse draumr, Danish drøm, Swedish dröm, Old Saxon drom "merriment, noise," Old Frisian dram "dream," Dutch droom, Old High German troum, German traum "dream," perhaps from Proto-Germanic *draugmas "deception, illusion, phantasm" (source also of Old Saxon bidriogan, Old High German triogan, German trügen "to deceive, delude," Old Norse draugr "ghost, apparition"). Possible cognates outside Germanic are Sanskrit druh- "seek to harm, injure," Avestan druz- "lie, deceive."

But Old English dream meant only "joy, mirth, noisy merriment," also "music." And much study has failed to prove that Old English dream is the root of the modern word for "sleeping vision," despite being identical in spelling. Either the meaning of the word changed dramatically or "vision" was an unrecorded secondary Old English meaning of dream, or there are two separate words here. OED offers this theory: "It seems as if the presence of dream 'joy, mirth, music,' had caused dream 'dream' to be avoided, at least in literature, and swefn, lit. 'sleep,' to be substituted ...."

Words for "sleeping vision" in Old English were mæting and swefn. Old English swefn originally meant "sleep," as did a great many Indo-European "dream" nouns, such as Lithuanian sapnas, Old Church Slavonic sunu, and the Romanic words (French songe, Spanish sueño, Italian sogno all from Latin somnium (from PIE *swep-no-; cognate with Greek hypnos; see somnolence; Old English swefn is from the same root). Dream in the sense of "ideal or aspiration" is from 1931, from earlier sense of "something of dream-like beauty or charm" (1888).
dream (v.): c. 1200 in the current sense, from dream (n.). Old English verb dremen meant "rejoice; play music." Related: Dreamed; dreaming.
dreamboat (n.): "romantically desirable person," 1947, from dream (n.) + boat (n.). "When My Dream Boat Comes Home" was the title of a 1936 song credited to Guy Lombardo.
dreamer (n.): c. 1300, "one who dreams," agent noun from dream (v.). Meaning "idler, daydreamer" emerged by 1530s. Old English dreamere meant "musician."
dreamland (n.): 1834, from dream (n.) + land (n.).
dreamless (adj.): c. 1600, from dream (n.) + -less. Old English dreamleas meant "joyless." Related: Dreamlessly; dreamlessness.
dreamscape (n.): 1959, from dream + second element abstracted from landscape, etc. First attested in a Sylvia Plath poem.
dreamt: alternative past tense and past participle of dream (v.).
dreamy (adj.): 1560s, "full of dreams," from dream + -y (2). Meaning "perfect, ideal," attested from 1941, American English teen slang. Compare dreamboat "romantically desirable person;" dream girl (1903).
drear (adj.): 1620s, poetic shortening of dreary.
dreariness (n.): Old English dreorinysse; see dreary + -ness.
dreary (adj.): Old English dreorig "sad, sorrowful," originally "cruel, bloody, blood-stained," from dreor "gore, blood," from (ge)dreosan (past participle droren) "fall, decline, fail," from Proto-Germanic *dreuzas (source also of Old Norse dreyrigr "gory, bloody," and more remotely, German traurig "sad, sorrowful"), from PIE root *dhreu- "to fall, flow, drip, droop" (see drip (v.)).

The word has lost its original sense of "dripping blood." Sense of "dismal, gloomy" first recorded 1667 in "Paradise Lost," but Old English had a related verb drysmian "become gloomy."
dreck (n.): "filth, trash," 1922, from Yiddish drek (German dreck), from Middle High German drec, from Proto-Germanic *threkka (source also of Old English þreax "rubbish," Old Frisian threkk), perhaps connected to Greek skatos "dung," Latin stercus "excrement," from PIE root *(s)ker- "to cut" (see shear (v.)).
dredge (n.): late 15c., in Scottish dreg-boat "boat for dredging," perhaps ultimately from root of drag (possibly via Middle Dutch dregghe "drag-net"). The verb is attested from c. 1500 in Scottish. Related: Dredged; dredging.
dredger (n.): c. 1500, agent noun from dredge (v.).
dree (v.): Old English dreogan "to work, suffer, endure;" see drudge. Cognate of Old Norse drygjado "carry out, accomplish," Gothic driugan "serve as a soldier."
dreg (n.): see dregs.
dregs (n.): c. 1300 (implied in surname Dryngedregges), from Old Norse dregg "sediment," from Proto-Germanic *drag- (source also of Old High German trestir, German Trester "grapeskins, husks"), from PIE *dher- (1) "to make muddy." Replaced Old English cognate dræst, dærst "dregs, lees." Figurative use is from 1530s.
drek: see dreck.
drench (v.): c. 1200, "to submerge, drown," from Old English drencan "give drink to, ply with drink, make drunk; soak, saturate; submerge, drown," causative of drincan "to drink" (see drink), from Proto-Germanic *drankijan (source also of Old Norse drekkja, Swedish dränka, Dutch drenken, German tränken, Gothic dragkjan "to give to drink"). Sense of "to wet thoroughly by throwing liquid over" is from c. 1550. Related: Drenched; drenching.
dress (v.): early 14c., "make straight; direct, guide, control, prepare for cooking," from Old French dresser, drecier "raise (oneself), address, prepare, lift, raise, hoist, set up, arrange, set (a table), serve (food), straighten, put right, direct," from Vulgar Latin *directiare, from Latin directus "direct, straight" (see direct (v.)).

Sense of "decorate, adorn" is late 14c., as is that of "put on clothing." Original sense survives in military meaning "align columns of troops." Dress up "attire elaborately" is from 1670s; to dress (someone) down (1769) is ironical. Related: Dressed; dressing. Dressing down "wearing clothes less formal than expected" is from 1960.
dress (n.): c. 1600, originally any clothing, especially that appropriate to rank or to some ceremony; sense of "woman's garment" is first recorded 1630s, with overtones of "made not merely to clothe but to adorn." Dress rehearsal first recorded 1828.
dressage (n.): 1936, from French dressage, from dresser "to train, drill" (see dress (v.)). Middle English had dress (v.) in the sense of "to train or break in" a horse or other animal (c. 1400), but it died out.
dresser (n.): c. 1300, "person who prepares or furnishes," agent noun from dress (v.). Meaning "table, sideboard," is late 14c., from Old French dresseur, dreçoir "table to prepare food," from dresser "prepare, dress." Meaning "chest, dressing bureau" is from 1895.
dressing (n.): mid-14c., verbal noun from dress (v.). Sense in cookery is from c. 1500. Meaning "bandage" is first recorded 1713. Dressing gown attested from 1777; dressing room from 1670s.
dressy (adj.): 1760s, from dress (v.) + -y (2).
For as her natural face decays, her skill improves in making the artificial one. Well, nothing diverts me more than one of those fine, old, dressy things, who thinks to conceal her age by everywhere exposing her person; sticking herself up in the front of a side-box; trailing through a minuet at Almack's; and then, in the public gardens looking, for all the world, like one of the painted ruins of the place. [Goldsmith, "The Good Natured Man," 1768]
drew: Old English dreow, past tense of draw (v.).
drib (n.): "drop," c. 1730, Scottish, perhaps from dribble.
dribble (v.): 1580s, frequentative of obsolete verb drib (1520s), variant of drip (v.). Sports sense first used of soccer (1863), basketball sense is by 1892 (implied in dribbling). Related: Dribbled; dribbling. As a noun from 1670s.
driblet (n.): 1590s, diminutive of drib (n.) with -let.
drier (n.): see dry (v.).
drift (n.): c. 1300, literally "a being driven" (of snow, etc.); not recorded in Old English; either a suffixed form of drive (v.) (compare thrift/thrive) or borrowed from Old Norse drift "snow drift," or Middle Dutch drift "pasturage, drove, flock," both from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (source also of Danish and Swedish drift, German Trift), from PIE root *dhreibh- "to drive, push" (see drive (v.)). Sense of "what one is getting at" is from 1520s. Meaning "controlled slide of a sports car" attested by 1955.
drift (v.): late 16c., from drift (n.). Figurative sense of "be passive and listless" is from 1822. Related: Drifted; drifting.
drifter (n.): 1864, as a mining term; 1883, "boat fishing with drift-nets;" agent noun from drift (v.). Meaning "vagrant" is from 1908.
driftwood (n.): 1630s, from drift (v.) + wood (n.).
drill (n.1): "tool for making holes," 1610s, from Dutch dril, drille "a hole, instrument for boring holes," from drillen "to bore (a hole), turn around, whirl" (see drill (v.)).
drill (n.2): "small furrow," 1727; also "machine for sowing seeds" (1731), from obsolete drill "rill, trickling stream" (1640s), which is of unknown origin; perhaps connected to drill (n.1).
drill (n.4): "West African baboon species," 1640s, perhaps from a native word (compare mandrill).
drill (n.3): kind of coarse, twilled cloth, 1743, from French drill, from German drillich "heavy, coarse cotton or linen fabric," from Old High German adjective drilich "threefold," from Latin trilix (genitive trilicis) "triply twilled" (see trellis). So called in reference to the method of weaving it.
drill (v.): c. 1600 (implied in drilling), from Dutch drillen "to bore (a hole), turn around, whirl," from Proto-Germanic *thr- (source also of Middle High German drillen "to turn, round off, bore," Old Engish þyrel "hole"), from PIE *tere- (1) "to turn, rub" (see throw (v.)). Sense of "to instruct in military exercise" is 1620s (also in Dutch drillen and in the Danish and German cognates), probably from the notion of troops "turning" in maneuvers. Extended noun sense of "the agreed-upon procedure" is from 1940. Related: Drilled.
drink (v.): Old English drincan "to drink," also "to swallow up, engulf" (class III strong verb; past tense dranc, past participle druncen), from Proto-Germanic *drenkan (source also of Old Saxon drinkan, Old Frisian drinka, Dutch drinken, Old High German trinkan, German trinken, Old Norse drekka, Gothic drigkan "to drink"), which is of uncertain origin or connections, perhaps from a root meaning "to draw."

Most Indo-European words for this trace to PIE *po(i)- (source of Greek pino, Latin biber, Irish ibim, Old Church Slavonic piti, Russian pit'; see imbibe).

The noun meaning "beverage, alcoholic beverage" was in late Old English.
The noun, AS. drinc, would normally have given southern drinch (cf. drench), but has been influenced by the verb. [Weekley]
To drink like a fish is first recorded 1747.
drinker (n.): Old English drincere, agent noun from drink (v.). Specifically of consumers of alcoholic beverages from c. 1200.