spray

«spray» in Mova's school dictionary: many tiny drops of liquid flying through the air, like… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (spray, a spray, sprays); verb (spray, sprays, sprayed, spraying)

meaning for a pupil

1) Spray is many tiny drops of liquid flying through the air, like sea spray from waves. tree →

2) A spray is a can or bottle that pushes out a liquid in tiny drops, such as hair spray or bug spray. tree →

3) To spray is to send out liquid in tiny drops, or to cover something that way. tree →

4) A spray of flowers is a small bunch of them. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, a spray breaks a liquid into droplets so it spreads over a bigger surface. In safety: cleaning sprays, insect sprays and paint sprays can be harmful; never spray them in eyes or near a flame and use them only with an adult. In nature, skunks spray a bad smell to protect themselves. Phrases: spray paint, sunscreen spray, nasal spray, spray bottle.

examples

• The waves sent salty spray over the rocks. tree →
• Spray some water on the plants. tree →
• Mum used bug spray before the camp. tree →
• A skunk can spray a terrible smell. tree →
• The firefighters sprayed water on the fire. tree →
• Do not spray cleaner near your face. tree →
• I put on sunscreen spray at the beach. tree →
• He gave her a spray of roses. tree →
• Splash! splash! the water leaped upward into spray. tree →

note

Spray as droplets is often uncountable (sea spray); a spray (the product or bunch) is countable. Spray cans are under pressure: never put them near heat or fire, they can explode.

In the corpora

• In graffiti slang, bombing means spraying lots of tags quickly, usually illegally; it has nothing to do with real bombs.
• The bombardier beetle mixes two chemicals in its body to make a spray of about 100 degrees that it shoots from its tail end.
• Keepers sometimes spray perfume or spices in an enclosure, because new smells give cats something to explore, like a new toy.
• No real animal breathes fire; the bombardier beetle sprays a nearly boiling chemical mix from a tough chamber at attackers.
• When researchers sprayed a harmless mist into single canopy trees, beetles of hundreds of kinds fell out, many never named.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «spray» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.