ray

A beam of light or radiation.

• I saw a ray of light through the clouds.

A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.

One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.

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.

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

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

A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.

To emit something as if in rays.transitive

• 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.

To radiate as if in rays.intransitive

To expose to radiation.transitive

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

Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.

To arrange.obsolete

To dress, array (someone).archaic

To stain or soil; to defile.obsolete

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

Array; order; arrangement; dress.obsoleteuncountable

• spoyling all her geares and goodly ray

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

Alternative form of re.alt-ofalternative