Spray Meaning
/spɹeɪ/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid.
nounSomething resembling a spray of liquid.
Sentence Examples
By means of a super high-pressure water spray practically all the sediment is removed.
What kind of deodorant do you prefer, spray or roll-on?
I need to buy some black spray paint.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gardener used a hose to ____ water on the plants regularly, helping them grow.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a small ____ bottle to water the delicate indoor plants that were sitting on the windowsill.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A strong sirocco was blowing the spray from the waves as far as the little café, whose glass doors were shut. The café reeked of brewing sage and human beings whose breath steamed the windows because of the cold outside."
— 1952, Nikos Kazantzakis, chapter 1, in Carl Wildman, transl., Zorba the Greek, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, translation of Βίος και πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá], →ISBN, page 3:
"Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested."
— 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:
"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."
— 2015, Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium:
"On match days he could give a good spray, and in many ways he was an old-fashioned coach, having learned a lot of his approach from Ron Barassi."
— 2008, Robert Harvey, Harves: Strength Through Loyalty, Macmillan Publishers Aus., →ISBN, page 119:
"Expectations of what they will put up with have changed and a big spray probably doesn't have the effect it used to have. It certainly worked for me, I would get really aggressive and get fired up 'cause it's a motivational device they used."
— 2008, Kevin Hillier, Rocket Science: The Biography of Rodney Eade, Macmillan Publishers Aus., →ISBN, page 151:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gardener used a hose to ____ water on the plants regularly, helping them grow.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a small ____ bottle to water the delicate indoor plants that were sitting on the windowsill.