spray
noun
- dynamic collection of drops dispersed in a gas
verb
- provide unsolicited advice, especially in climbing
- apply thin liquid to surface
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /spɹeɪ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English spray, from Old English *spræġ, sprei (found in place names such as that of Spreyton, England), of unknown origin. Compare English sprig (“shoot, twig”).
- A small branch of flowers or berries.
“The bridesmaid carried a spray of lily-of-the-valley.”
“O Nightingale, that on yon bloomy ſpray / Warbleſt at eve, when all the woods are ſtill, / Thou with freſh hope the lover’s heart doſt fill, / While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.”
- A collective body of small branches.
“The tree has a beautiful spray.”
“A blisful flour, owt of this spray schal springe ; / The fruyt þer-of schal be ful precïous ; / A causë haue [we] for to ioye & synge, / In honure of þat maidë gracïous, / That gret comfort schal cause[n] vnto vs ; / ffor now schal faste oure company encrees, / And god with man schal makë smallë pees.”
- Branches and twigs collectively; foliage.
“Gret fur he made þer aniȝt of wode & of sprai.”
“Troubled, 'wilder'd, and forlorn, / Dark, benighted, travel-worn, / Over many a tangled spray, / All heart-broke I heard her say”
- An orchard.
- An ornament or design that resembles a branch.
verb
Etymology: 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”).
- To project a liquid in a dispersive manner toward something.
“The firemen sprayed the house.”
“Using a water cannon, the national guard sprayed the protesters.”
- To project in a dispersive manner.
“Spray some ointment on that scratch.”
“The water sprayed out of the hose.”
- To project many small items dispersively.
“The sprawl of sheds like Magna Parks 1 to 3 are a particularly vivid measure, because they host the final moment of relative stasis for millions of products that are then sprayed out to homes in every direction.”
“Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.”
- To urinate in order to mark territory.
- To allocate blocks of memory from (a heap, etc.), and fill them with the same byte sequence, hoping to establish that sequence in a certain predetermined location as part of an exploit.
“to spray the heap of a target process”
“This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.”
- To pass (a ball), usually laterally across the field and often a long distance.
“Kevin McLeod sprayed the ball across from the left flank where a raging Ainsworth met it on the volley from 25 yards out, crashing the ball into the roof of the net.”
“Yunus sprayed it to the wing where Ali was in some space.”
- To kick (a ball) poorly and in an unintended direction.
“Despite a goal to Vin Gardiner for Carlton, courtesy of an infringement, the Blues squandered many opportunities in attack. They sprayed the ball with their field kicking, and in their path toward goal.”
“But once again their forwards, including Sloss, sprayed the ball in front of goal and squandered their momentum by kicking a solitary goal and six careless behinds.”
- To give unwanted advice.
- To shower guests dancing at a function with money.
““If a celebrator is dancing and you spray him/her, you may go to jail from the party venue because the law enforcement agents will be there, waiting to arrest you.”
“Politicians have been known to spray crowds with cash. There is a cottage industry of vendors offering fresh banknotes to partygoers looking to spray their hosts.”