ray

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   emit as rays

   That tower rays a laser beam for miles across the sky

2. 2
   noun

   A beam of light or radiation.

   I saw a ray of light through the clouds.

3. 3
   noun

   Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.

   All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.

4. 4
   verb

   To emit something as if in rays.

   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.

5. 5
   verb

   To expose to radiation.

   Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.

6. 6
   verb

   To stain or soil; to defile.

   From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […].

7. 7
   noun

   Array; order; arrangement; dress.

   spoyling all her geares and goodly ray

8. 8
   name

   A diminutive of the male given names Raymond, Rayane, or Rayan, also used as a formal given name.

   -, or Raymond if it happened to be a boy, choosing it in the hope that a name like Ray would make a boy's life easier.

Etymology

* As an English surname, from pet forms derived from the root of Raymond. * Also as an English surname, from Old French rei (“king”). Compare Roy, King. * Also as an English surname, from Old English rā (“roe deer”). Compare Roe. * Also as an English surname, variant of Wray and Rye. * As a Scottish Gaelic surname, shortened from McRae. * As a French surname, from the verb raier (“to gush out, flow, radiate”). Compare Leray. * As a Polish and Slovene surname, Americanized from Raj, from raj (“paradise”). * As an Indian surname, variant of Rai.