spray
/spɹeɪ/ noun, verb
Forms sprays spraying sprayed
- noun A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid. “The sailor could feel the spray from the waves.”
- noun (figuratively) Something resembling a spray of liquid.
- noun (countable) A pressurized container; an atomizer.
- noun (countable) Any of numerous commercial products, including paints, cosmetics, and insecticides, that are dispensed from containers in this manner.
- noun (medicine, countable) 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.
- noun (metalworking, countable) A side channel or branch of the runner of a flask, made to distribute the metal to all parts of the mold.
- noun (metalworking, countable) A group of castings made in the same mold and connected by sprues formed in the runner and its branches.
- noun (computing, countable) The allocation and filling of blocks of memory with the same byte sequence, hoping to establish that sequence in a certain predetermined location as part of an exploit.
- verb (transitive) To project a liquid in a dispersive manner toward something. “The firemen sprayed the house.”
- verb (ergative) To project in a dispersive manner. “Spray some ointment on that scratch.”
- verb (transitive, figurative) To project many small items dispersively.
- verb (intransitive, zoology) To urinate in order to mark territory.
- verb (transitive, computing, computer security) To allocate blocks of memory from (a heap, etc.), and fill them with the same byte sequence, hoping to establish that sequence in a certain predetermined location as part of an exploit. “to spray the heap of a target process”
- verb (transitive, soccer) To pass (a ball), usually laterally across the field and often a long distance.
- verb (transitive, Australian rules football) To kick (a ball) poorly and in an unintended direction.
- verb (climbing, slang, derogatory) To give unwanted advice.
- noun (countable) A small branch of flowers or berries. “The bridesmaid carried a spray of lily-of-the-valley.”
- noun (countable) A collective body of small branches. “The tree has a beautiful spray.”
- noun (uncountable) Branches and twigs collectively; foliage.
- noun (countable, obsolete) An orchard.
Synonyms
spray can sprig spraying atomizer atomiser sprayer nebulizer nebuliser
Etymology
From Middle Dutch sprāien, sprayen, spraeyen (“to spray, sprinkle, spread”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sprēwijaną (“to spray, sprinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to sow, scatter”).
Cognate with Middle High German spræjen, spræwen (“to squirt, spray, dust, splash, straw”), Danish dialectal språe (“to open up, burst forth”), Swedish dialectal språ (“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”).
From Middle English spray, from Old English *spræġ, sprei (found in place names such as that of Spreyton, England), of unknown origin. Compare English sprig (“shoot, twig”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small shoot or branch; a twig. Chaucer.
- noun A collective body of small branches; as, the tree has a beautiful spray.
- noun Water flying in small drops or particles, as by the force of wind, or the dashing of waves, or from a waterfall, and the like.
- noun (a) A jet of fine medicated vapor, used either as an application to a diseased part or to charge the air of a room with a disinfectant or a deodorizer.
Etymology [Cf. Dan. sprag. See Sprig.]
Etymology [probably from a Dutch or Low German form akin to E. spread. See Spread, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “spray”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details