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rainbow

nounadjectiveverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈɹeɪnbəʊ//
  • United Kingdom//ˈɹɛjmbəw//
  • United States//ˈɹeɪnboʊ//
  • United States//ˈɹeɪmboʊ//

A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.

noun

  1. 1

    A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.

    Why are there so many songs about rainbows And what's on the other side? Rainbows are visions, but only illusions And rainbows have nothing to hide.

  2. 2

    Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.

  3. 3

    A wide assortment; a varied multitude.

    a rainbow of possibilities

  4. 4

    figurativeAn illusion; a mirage.

    Many electoral promises are rainbows, vanishing soon after poll day.

  5. 5

    A curveball, particularly a slow one.

  6. 6

    A trick in which the player makes the ball arc over the opponent's head using both feet; rainbow kick

  7. 7

    slangIn Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.

  8. 8

    Rainbow trout.

    Finally, by actual trial, I have found that I can catch more rainbow by using one fly than with a two or three-fly cast.

  9. 9

    figurativeA person within the LGBT community.

    Oh look, the rainbow came back.

Etymology

From Middle English reynbowe, raynbowe, from Old English reġnboga (“rainbow”), from Proto-West Germanic *regnabogō, from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô (“rainbow”), equivalent to rain + bow (“arch”). Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge (“rainbow”), Dutch regenboog (“rainbow”), German Regenbogen (“rainbow”), Danish regnbue (“rainbow”), Swedish regnbåge (“rainbow”), Icelandic regnbogi (“rainbow”).

adjective

  1. 1

    Multicolored, especially if in rainbow order.

  2. 2

    Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.

    That Asian-American actor Thomas Ikeda contributes a pleasingly frantic Panthino would not be considered rainbow enough.

    He went along with them because the Pack was a rainbow group — two Italian-Americans, a black man, a Jew (Bishop), and a sometime Englishman (Lawford) — and they were making a point.

    The 1999 June elections led to a surprise change in the governing coalition from the long-term ruling Christian Democrats to a rainbow group of Greens, Liberals, and Socialists.

    […] it seemed to me to be naive indeed for the Liberal Democrats to believe that they could simply enter into a rainbow alliance against the Labour Government.

  3. 3

    LGBT.

    Similarly, the question of who belongs in such a rainbow alliance isn't set. It can include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals. It can include people who are 'questioning' which culture they belong to [...]

    Why do they have to add rainbow propaganda into everything?

  4. 4

    Composed entirely of different suits.

  5. 5

    Of or pertaining to rainbow tables.

    rainbow attack

verb

  1. 1

    To brighten with, or as with, a rainbow; to pattern with the colours of the rainbow.

  2. 2

    To take the appearance of a rainbow.

    We saw birds and butterflies rainbowing in the sun; lazy lizards crawling in the heat; inguanas blinking on stone wall, with mouth wide open for flies; poisonous snakes, not only carved on walls, but gliding through the grass.

  3. 3

    In climbing gyms where the rocks to climb are colored to indicate suggested climbing routes, to climb rocks of different colors, thereby ignoring such routes.

    “She's going to learn to belay while I'm climbing? What if I fall?” “You're not going to fall while rainbowing a 5.8, and besides, she'll catch you.” “I could die.” “That would be tragic,” I said. Kaitlyn crossed her arms.

    called “rainbowing.” Different routes were color coordinated. ... Using hand-me-down equipment and learning as much as she could, Brittany began climbing outdoors. She found like-minded people and joined organizations such as Brown ...

Forms

plural
rainbows
past tense
rainbowed
past participle
rainbowed
present participle
rainbowing
third person singular
rainbows
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).