ray
nounverbnounverbnounnounnouncommon in dialogue
- United States//ɹeɪ//
A beam of light or radiation.
noun
- 1
A beam of light or radiation.
I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
Strangely light and delicate was his frame and seeming, yet with a sense of slumbering power beneath, as the delicate peak of a snow mountain seen afar in the low red rays of morning.
- 2
A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
- 3
One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
- 4
A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
- 5
obsoleteSight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
- 6
A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
Etymology
Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
verb
- 1
To emit something as if in rays.
I had no particular woman in my mind; certainly never intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstraction; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether a fancy of my own.
- 2
To radiate as if in rays.
- 3
To expose to radiation.
Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.
noun
- 1
Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.
Etymology
From Middle English raye, rayȝe, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, reȝge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo arrange.
- 2
archaicTo dress, array (someone).
- 3
obsoleteTo stain or soil; to defile.
From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […].
Etymology
Shortened from array.
noun
- 1
obsoleteArray; order; arrangement; dress.
spoyling all her geares and goodly ray
noun
- 1
The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.
Etymology
From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.
noun
- 1
Variant of reAlternative form of re.
Etymology
Alternative forms.
Forms
- plural
- rays
- past tense
- rayed
- past participle
- rayed
- present participle
- raying
- third person singular
- rays