spray
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɹeɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: sprays
form: spraying
form: sprayed
form: sprayed
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”).
Senses: examples: text: The firemen sprayed the house.
text: Using a water cannon, the national guard sprayed the protesters.
glosses: To project a liquid in a dispersive manner toward something.
examples: text: Spray some ointment on that scratch.
text: The water sprayed out of the hose.
glosses: To project in a dispersive manner.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
glosses: To project many small items dispersively.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: To urinate in order to mark territory.
examples: text: to spray the heap of a target process
text: 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.
ref: 2015, Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
qualifier: computer security
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2012 February 1, Ash Rose, The QPR Miscellany, The History Press, →ISBN:
text: Yunus sprayed it to the wing where Ali was in some space.
ref: 2013 August 11, Jamal Orme, The Victory Boys, Kube Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 13:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
soccer
sports
glosses: To pass (a ball), usually laterally across the field and often a long distance.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2011, Ashley Browne, Grand Finals: The Stories Behind the Premier Teams of the Victorian Football League. 1897-1938, Slattery Media Group, →ISBN, page 143:
text: 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.
ref: 2016 June 28, Nick Richardson, The Game of Their Lives, Macmillan Publishers Aus., →ISBN:
qualifier: Australian rules football
glosses: To kick (a ball) poorly and in an unintended direction.
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To give unwanted advice.
examples: text: “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.
ref: 2019, “Nigeria’s money-spraying culture: A national embarassment?^([sic])”, in Apa News, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2024:
text: 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.
ref: 2025 May 31, Aanu Adeoye, “Nigeria cracks down on ‘spraying’ cash”, in FT Weekend, page 6:
glosses: To shower guests dancing at a function with money
Derived terms: say it, don't spray it
sprayable
spray and pray
spray-on