spray

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Tiny drops of liquid blown or scattered through the air.

   The sailor could feel the cool spray from the waves.

2. 2
   verb

   To scatter liquid in small drops over a surface.

   He sprayed the wall with bright blue paint.

3. 3
   noun

   A liquid kept in a can that comes out as a fine mist when pressed.

   She used an insect spray to get rid of the mosquitoes.

4. 4
   verb

   To come out or send out in a burst of small drops.

   Water sprayed all over the floor when the pipe burst.

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”).

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