Definition of "ray"

ray¹

/ɹeɪ/

noun
plural rays
1. A beam of light or radiation.
2. (zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
3. (zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
4. (botany) 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.
5. (obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
  Quotations
  All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
  1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd
6. (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
7. (colloquial) A tiny amount.
verb
third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed
1. (transitive) To emit something as if in rays.
  Quotations
  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.
  1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall
2. (intransitive) To radiate as if in rays.
3. (transitive) To expose to radiation.
  Quotations
  Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.
  1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, page 219

ray²

/ɹeɪ/

noun
plural rays
1. A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.

ray³

/ɹeɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present rays, present participle raying, simple past and past participle rayed
1. (obsolete) To arrange.
2. (now rare) To dress, array (someone).
3. (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
  Quotations
  From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […] .
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
noun
uncountable
1. (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
  Quotations
  spoyling all her geares and goodly ray
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 50

ray⁴

/ɹeɪ/

noun
plural rays
1. The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.

ray⁵

/ɹeɪ/

noun
plural rays
1. (music) Alternative form of re

Definition of "ray"

ray1

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

ray2

noun

ray3

verb

Quotations

noun

Quotations

ray4

noun

ray5

noun

ray¹

ray²

ray³

ray⁴

ray⁵