rainbow
UK /ˈɹeɪnbəʊ/ · US /ˈɹeɪnboʊ/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms rainbows rainbowing rainbowed
- noun A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
- noun Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.
- noun (often used with “of”) A wide assortment; a varied multitude. “a rainbow of possibilities”
- noun (figurative) An illusion; a mirage. “Many electoral promises are rainbows, vanishing soon after poll day.”
- noun (baseball) A curveball, particularly a slow one.
- noun (soccer) A trick in which the player makes the ball arc over the opponent's head using both feet; rainbow kick
- noun (poker slang) In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.
- noun Rainbow trout.
- adjective Multicolored, especially if in rainbow order.
- adjective (attributive, chiefly US) Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.
- adjective (attributive, sometimes derogatory) LGBT.
- adjective (poker, chiefly of a flop) Composed entirely of different suits.
- adjective (mathematics, cryptography) Of or pertaining to rainbow tables. “rainbow attack”
- verb (transitive) To brighten with, or as with, a rainbow; to pattern with the colours of the rainbow.
- verb (intransitive) To take the appearance of a rainbow.
- verb (climbing) 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.
- noun A member of the Rainbow Guides, a Girl Guide movement for younger girls.
- proper noun A census-designated place in San Diego County, California, United States.
- proper noun A town in the Shire of Hindmarsh and the Shire of Yarriambiack, western Victoria, Australia.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
iris spectrum motley multiethnic multiracial rainbowed multipartisan multihued polychromatic
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”).
From rainbow.
* From an altered form of the Old French personal name Rainbaut, which is composed of the Proto-Germanic elements *raginą (“advice, counsel”) and *balþaz (“strong, bold”).
* Translation of German Regenbogen, a Jewish Ashkenazi ornamental surname.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A bow or arch exhibiting, in concentric bands, the several colors of the spectrum, and formed in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in drops of falling rain.
Etymology [AS. regenboga, akin to G. regenbogen. See Rain, and Bow anything bent,]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rainbow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details