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Ray
Definitions
- 1 A surname transferred from the nickname.
- 2 A city near Tehran, Iran.
- 3 A diminutive of the male given name Raymond, also used as a formal given name.
"-, or Raymond if it happened to be a boy, choosing it in the hope that a name like Ray would make a boy's life easier."
- 4 A region and satrapy in ancient Iran located between the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges and the Dasht-e Kavir desert; Rhagiana. historical
- 5 A diminutive of the female given name Rachel, more often spelled Rae.
"'Rachel told me―' 'Call her Ray. She hates Rachel.'"
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- 6 A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Coosa County, Alabama.
- 7 A number of places in the United States:; A ghost town in Pinal County, Arizona.
- 8 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Fremont Township, Steuben County, Indiana and Branch County, Michigan.
- 9 A number of places in the United States:; A township in Macomb County, Michigan.
- 10 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Koochiching County, Minnesota.
- 11 A number of places in the United States:; A minor city in Williams County, North Dakota.
- 12 A river in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England, which joins the River Cherwell.
- 13 A river in north Wiltshire, England, which joins the Thames.
- 1 A beam of light or radiation.
"I saw a ray of light through the clouds."
- 2 Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.
- 3 Array; order; arrangement; dress. obsolete, uncountable
"spoyling all her geares and goodly ray"
- 4 The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.
- 5 Alternative form of re. alt-of, alternative
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- 6 cartilaginous fishes having horizontally flattened bodies and enlarged winglike pectoral fins with gills on the underside; most swim by moving the pectoral fins wordnet
- 7 A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
- 8 any of the stiff bony spines in the fin of a fish wordnet
- 9 One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
- 10 the syllable naming the second (supertonic) note of any major scale in solmization wordnet
- 11 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.
- 12 a column of light (as from a beacon) wordnet
- 13 Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen. obsolete
"All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze."
- 14 a group of nearly parallel lines of electromagnetic radiation wordnet
- 15 A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
- 16 a branch of an umbel or an umbelliform inflorescence wordnet
- 17 (mathematics) a straight line extending from a point wordnet
- 1 To emit something as if in rays. transitive
"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 arrange. obsolete
- 3 expose to radiation wordnet
- 4 To radiate as if in rays. intransitive
- 5 To dress, array (someone). archaic
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- 6 extend or spread outward from a center or focus or inward towards a center wordnet
- 7 To expose to radiation. transitive
"Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly."
- 8 To stain or soil; to defile. obsolete
"From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […]."
- 9 emit as rays wordnet
Etymology
Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
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”).
Shortened from array.
Shortened from array.
From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.
Alternative forms.
* As an English surname, from pet forms derived from the root of Raymond. * Also as an English surname, from Old French rei (“king”). Compare Roy, King. * Also as an English surname, from Old English rā (“roe deer”). Compare Roe. * Also as an English surname, variant of Wray and Rye. * As a Scottish Gaelic surname, shortened from McRae. * As a French surname, from the verb raier (“to gush out, flow, radiate”). Compare Leray. * As a Polish and Slovene surname, Americanized from Raj, from raj (“paradise”). * As an Indian surname, variant of Rai.
From Persian ری (ray /rey), from Middle Persian, from Old Persian 𐎼𐎥𐎠 (r-g-a /ragā/), a Median district. Compare Akkadian 𒊏𒂵𒀪 (ra-ga-'), Elamite 𒊩𒋡𒀭 (rák-ka₄-an) (loc.), Ancient Greek Ῥάγαι (Rhágai), Latin Rhagae, Rhaganae, Iranian borrowings.
See also for "ray"
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