Spray
Pronunciation
Origin
From Middle Dutch sprÄien, sprayen, spraeyen ("to spray, sprinkle, spread"), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sprÄ“wijanÄ… ("to spray, sprinkle"), from Proto-Indo-European *sper- ("to sow, scatter"). Cognate with Middle High German spræjen, spræwen ("to squirt, spray, dust, splash, straw"), Danish dialectal sprÃ¥e ("to open up, burst forth"), Swedish dialectal sprÃ¥ ("to sprout, shoot forth, burst"), Norwegian dialectal spra, spræ ("to splash, splatter, spout, burst forth"), Dutch sproeien ("to spray, sprinkle"), German sprühen ("to spray, sparkle").
Full definition of spray
Noun
spray
(plural sprays)- A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid.The sailor could feel the spray from the waves.
- A small branch of flowers or berries.The bridesmaid carried a spray of lily-of-the-valley.
- DrydenThe painted birds, companions of the spring,
Hopping from spray to spray, were heard to sing. - A collective body of small branches.The tree has a beautiful spray.
- SpenserAnd from the trees did lop the needless spray.
- A pressurized container; an atomizer.
- Any of numerous commercial products, including paints, cosmetics, and insecticides, that are dispensed from containers in this manner.
- (medicine) A jet of fine medicated vapour, used either as an application to a diseased part or to charge the air of a room with a disinfectant or a deodorizer.
- (metalworking) A side channel or branch of the runner of a flask, made to distribute the metal to all parts of the mold.
- (metalworking) A group of castings made in the same mold and connected by sprues formed in the runner and its branches.
Verb
- To project a liquid in a dispersive manner.The firemen sprayed the house.Using a water cannon, the national guard sprayed the protesters.Spray some ointment on that scratch.
- (figuratively) To project many small items dispersively.
- 2013-06-14, Jonathan Freedland, Obama's once hip brand is now tainted, Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.