spray
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /spɹeɪ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪ
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch sprāien, sprayen, spraeyen (“to spray, sprinkle, spread”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sprēwijaną (“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 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”).
Noun
spray (plural sprays)
- A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid.
- The sailor could feel the spray from the waves.
- 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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
- (countable, computing) 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.
- 2015, Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium
Derived terms
Translations
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Verb
spray (third-person singular simple present sprays, present participle spraying, simple past and past participle sprayed)
- (transitive) To project a liquid in a dispersive manner toward something.
- The firemen sprayed the house.
- Using a water cannon, the national guard sprayed the protesters.
- (ergative) To project in a dispersive manner.
- Spray some ointment on that scratch.
- The water sprayed out of the hose.
- (transitive, figuratively) To project many small items dispersively.
- 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
- 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.
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- (intransitive, zoology) To urinate in order to mark territory.
- (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
- 2015, Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium
Derived terms
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Old English sprei (found in place names such as that of Spreyton, England), of unknown origin.
Noun
spray (countable and uncountable, plural sprays)
- (countable) A small branch of flowers or berries.
- The bridesmaid carried a spray of lily-of-the-valley.
- a. 1674, John Milton, “To the Nightingale”, in Paradise Regain’d, Birmingham: J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, published 1752, page 506:
- O Nightingale, that on yon bloomy ſpray / Warbleſt at eve, when all the woods are ſtill, / Thou with freſh hope the lover’s heart doſt fill, / While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415, page 385:
- The painted Birds, Companions of the Spring, / Hopping from Spray to Spray, were heard to ſing ; / Both Eyes and Ears receiv’d a like Delight, / Enchanting Muſick, and a charming Sight.
- (countable) A collective body of small branches.
- The tree has a beautiful spray.
- a. 1426, Thomas Hoccleve, “The recordyng of aungeles song of the Natiuite of oure lady”, in Frederick James Furnivall, editor, Hoccleve's Works, volume III (in Middle English), London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., published 1897, lines 8–14, page xlvi:
- A blisful flour, owt of this spray schal springe ; / The fruyt þer-of schal be ful precïous ; / A causë haue [we] for to ioye & synge, / In honure of þat maidë gracïous, / That gret comfort schal cause[n] vnto vs ; / ffor now schal faste oure company encrees, / And god with man schal makë smallë pees.
- A blissful flower out will spring out of this spray; / Its fruit shall be very precious; / We have cause for joy and song, / In honour of that gracious maid, / Who will make us very comfortable; / for now our company will grow quickly, / And man will make peace with God.
- c. 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene. Book VII, Canto VII:
- And from the Trees did lop the needless Spray;
- (uncountable) Branches and twigs collectively; foliage.
- a. 1300, Robert of Gloucester, “Henricus”, in William Aldis Wright, editor, The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (in Middle English), London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, published 1887, part I, page 755:
- Gret fur he made þer aniȝt of wode & of sprai.
- There, at night, he made a great box out of wood and spray.
- a. 1843, John Claudius Loudon, “Catalogue of Culinary Vegetables”, in The Suburban Horticulturalist, London: Bradbury and Evans, published 1845, page 631:
- The pea, being a tendrilled climber, whenever it is to be cultivated to the greatest advantage, ought to be supported by pea sticks, which are branches of trees or shrubs well furnished with spray, and of lengths suited to the height to which the plants grow.
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- (countable, obsolete) An orchard.
- (countable) An ornament or design that resembles a branch.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /spreː/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: spray
Finnish
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: spray
- IPA(key): /ˈsprei̯/, [ˈs̠pre̞i̯]
Declension
Inflection of spray (Kotus type 21/rosé, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | spray | sprayt | |
genitive | sprayn | sprayiden sprayitten | |
partitive | sprayta | sprayita | |
illative | sprayhin sprayhyn |
sprayihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | spray | sprayt | |
accusative | nom. | spray | sprayt |
gen. | sprayn | ||
genitive | sprayn | sprayiden sprayitten | |
partitive | sprayta | sprayita | |
inessive | sprayssa | sprayissa | |
elative | spraysta | sprayista | |
illative | sprayhin sprayhyn |
sprayihin | |
adessive | spraylla | sprayilla | |
ablative | spraylta | sprayilta | |
allative | spraylle | sprayille | |
essive | sprayna | sprayina | |
translative | sprayksi | sprayiksi | |
instructive | — | sprayin | |
abessive | spraytta | sprayitta | |
comitative | — | sprayineen |
Inflection of spray (Kotus type 21/rosé, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | spray | sprayt | |
genitive | sprayn | sprayiden sprayitten | |
partitive | spraytä | sprayitä | |
illative | sprayhin sprayhyn |
sprayihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | spray | sprayt | |
accusative | nom. | spray | sprayt |
gen. | sprayn | ||
genitive | sprayn | sprayiden sprayitten | |
partitive | spraytä | sprayitä | |
inessive | sprayssä | sprayissä | |
elative | spraystä | sprayistä | |
illative | sprayhin sprayhyn |
sprayihin | |
adessive | sprayllä | sprayillä | |
ablative | sprayltä | sprayiltä | |
allative | spraylle | sprayille | |
essive | spraynä | sprayinä | |
translative | sprayksi | sprayiksi | |
instructive | — | sprayin | |
abessive | sprayttä | sprayittä | |
comitative | — | sprayineen |
Usage notes
- Many of the inflected forms, especially the plurals, are somewhat awkward. Therefore, it may be advisable to use appropriate synonyms for these cases, such as spraypullo, spraytölkki, suihke, suihkepullo.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Norwegian Bokmål
Derived terms
Related terms
Norwegian Nynorsk
Related terms
Portuguese
Etymology
From English spray, from Middle Dutch sprāien, sprayen, spraeyen (“to spray, sprinkle, spread”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sprēwijaną (“to spray, sprinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to sow, scatter”)
Noun
spray m (plural sprays)
Synonyms
- (atomizer): borrifador, atomizador, esprei, aerossol, pulverizador
- (fine mist): borrifo, esprei
Spanish
Further reading
- “spray” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.