Ray vs Shaft - What's the difference?
ray | shaft |
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
(lb) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
* , (Geoffrey Chaucer):
* , (Roger Ascham):
The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
*
(lb) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
* , (John Milton):
* , (Vicesimus Knox):
Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= A beam or ray of light.
* 1912 , (Willa Cather), :
The main axis of a feather.
(lb) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
A long, narrow passage sunk into the earth, either natural or for artificial.
A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.
A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.
(lb) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pediment.
* , (Ralph Waldo Emerson):
The main cylindrical part of the penis.
The chamber of a blast furnace.
(slang) To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
to equip with a shaft.
(slang) To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with.
As nouns the difference between ray and shaft
is that ray is a beam of light or radiation or ray can be a marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail or ray can be the name of the letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in pitman shorthand or ray can be (obsolete) array; order; arrangement; dress or ray can be (music) while shaft is (lb) the entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.As verbs the difference between ray and shaft
is that ray is to emit something as if in rays or ray can be (obsolete) to arrange while shaft is (slang) to fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.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 ----shaft
English
Noun
(en noun)- His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, /
- A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele, the feathers, and the head.
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft .
- And the thunder, / Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / Perhaps
- Some kinds of literary pursuitshave been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.
Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
- They were a fine company of old women, and a Dutch painter would have loved to find them there together, where the sun made bright patches on the floor and sent long, quivering shafts of gold through the dusky shade up among the rafters.
- Bid time and nature gently spare /
Usage notes
In Early Modern English, the shaft referred to the entire body of a long weapon, such that an arrow's "shaft" was composed of its "tip", "stale" or "steal", and "fletching". empenne as "I [[feather, fether a shafte, I put fethers upon a steale". Over time, the word came to be used in place of the former "stale" and lost its original meaning.Synonyms
* stale, stail, steal, stele, steel (arrows, spears ) * mineshaft (vertical underground passage )Verb
(en verb)- Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
- Turns out my roommate was shafting my girlfriend.