Ray vs Cray - What's the difference?
ray | cray |
A beam of light or radiation.
(zoology) A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
(zoology) One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
(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.
(obsolete) Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
* Alexander Pope
(mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
(colloquial) A tiny amount.
To emit something as if in rays.
To radiate as if in rays
(obsolete) To arrange.
(obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.4:
The name of the letter ?/?, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.
(obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
* Spenser
(slang) Crazy.
* 2010 , Cory Giger, "
* 2012 , "
* 2013 , Dani Kellner, "
*
As a proper noun ray
is from a (etyl) nickname meaning a king or a roe.As a noun cray is
a crayfish or lobster.As an adjective cray is
(slang) crazy.ray
English
Etymology 1
Via (etyl), from (etyl) rai, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
- All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
- Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope .
Derived terms
* death ray * gamma ray * manta ray * ray gun * stingray * X-rayVerb
(en verb)- (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Etymology 2
(etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m).Etymology 3
Shortened from array.Verb
(en verb)- From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And form his face the filth that did it ray .
Etymology 4
From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.Noun
(en noun)Etymology 5
Noun
(-)- And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray .
Etymology 6
Alternative forms.Anagrams
* English terms with multiple etymologies ----cray
English
Etymology 1
Etymology 2
From crazy by shortening.Adjective
(en adjective)NFL commish slaps Steelers in face with weak punishment of Seymour", The Altoona Mirror (Altoona, Pennsylvania), 23 November 2010:
- That small of a fine for that kind of blatant disregard is cray .
Sharm x Savoy + Kiss = Happy RWD", Fazer , Issue 127, September 2012, page 80:
- Before his set, RWD somehow found time to back a quick vodka shot in the Ice Bar downstairs - yes we're aware an ice bar in the desert is cray .
20 Things Your Ten Year Old Self Could Do at Cornell", Slope , Spring 2013, page 18:
- Also, make sure you look both ways first, because the traffic is cray .