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Ray vs Streak - What's the difference?

ray | streak | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between ray and streak

is that ray is to emit something as if in rays while streak is to move very swiftly.

In intransitive terms the difference between ray and streak

is that ray is to radiate as if in rays while streak is to have or obtain streaks.

As a proper noun Ray

is {{surname|from=nicknames}} from a Middle English nickname meaning a king or a roe.

ray

English

Etymology 1

Via (etyl), from (etyl) rai, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A beam of light or radiation.
  • I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
  • (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
  • All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
  • (mathematics) A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
  • (colloquial) A tiny amount.
  • Unfortunately he didn't have a ray of hope .
    Derived terms
    * death ray * gamma ray * manta ray * ray gun * stingray * X-ray

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To emit something as if in rays.
  • To radiate as if in rays
  • (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A marine fish with a flat body, large wing-like fins, and a whip-like tail.
  • Etymology 3

    Shortened from array.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To arrange.
  • (obsolete) To stain or soil; to defile.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.4:
  • 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)
  • The name of the letter ?/?, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.
  • Etymology 5

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Array; order; arrangement; dress.
  • * Spenser
  • And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray .

    Etymology 6

    Alternative forms.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music)
  • streak

    English

    (wikipedia streak)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An irregular line left from smearing or motion.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage='Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.}}
  • A continuous series of like events.
  • The color of the powder of a mineral. So called, because a simple field test for a mineral is to streak it against unglazed white porcelain.
  • A moth of the family Geometridae .
  • *
  • A tendency or characteristic, but not a dominant or pervasive one.
  • (shipbuilding) A strake.
  • A rung or round of a ladder.
  • Derived terms

    * streak of good luck

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To have or obtain streaks.
  • If you clean a window in direct sunlight, it will streak.
  • (slang) To run naked in public.
  • It was a pleasant game until some guy went streaking across the field.
  • To create streaks.
  • You will streak a window by cleaning it in direct sunlight.
  • To move very swiftly.
  • (obsolete, UK, Scotland) To stretch; to extend; hence, to lay out, as a dead body.
  • See also

    * losing streak * streaker * winning streak * talk a blue streak

    Anagrams

    * * * * * *