RAY, n. [L. radius.]

1. A line of light, or the right line supposed to be describe by a particle of light. A collection of parallel rays constitutes a beam; a collection of diverging or converging rays, a pencil. – D. Olmsted. The mixed solar beam contains, 1st caloric rays, producing heat and expansion, but not vision and color; 2nd. colorific rays, producing vision and color, but not heat not expansion; 3rd. chimical rays, producing certain effects on the composition of bodies, but neither heat, expansion, vision or color; 4th. a power producing magnetism, but whether a distinct or associated power, is not determined. It seems to be associated with the violet, more than with the other rays. – Silliman.
2. Figuratively, a beam of intellectual light.
3. Light; luster. The air sharpen'd his visual rag. – Milton.
4. In botany, the outer part or circumference of a compound radiate flower. – Martyn. A plate of compressed parallelograms of cellular tissue, connecting the texture of the stem, and maintaining a communication between the center and the circumference.
5. In ichthyology, a bony or cartilaginous ossicle in the fins of fishes, serving to support the membrane.
6. A plant, [lolium.] – Ainsworth.
7. Ray, for Array. [Not in use.] – Spenser. B. Jonson. Pencil of rays, a number of rays of light issuing from a point and diverging. – Encyc.

A fish; a common name for the species of the genus Rain, including the skate, thornback, torpedo, stingray, &c.

1. To streak; to mark with long lines. – Spenser. Shak.
2. To foul; to obey. [Not in use.] – Spenser.
3. To array. [Not in use.]
4. To shoot forth. – Thomson.

1. To array.
   
   
   [Obs.] Sir T. More.
2. Array; order; arrangement; dress.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   And spoiling all her gears and goodly ray. Spenser.

3. One of a number of lines or parts diverging from a common point or center, like the radii of a circle; as, a star of six rays.
4. To mark with long lines] to streak.
   
   
   [Obs.] Chaucer.
5. To shine, as with rays.
   
   
   Mrs. Browning.
6. Any one of numerous elasmobranch fishes of the order Raiæ, including the skates, torpedoes, sawfishes, etc.
   
   
   (b)
7. To mark, stain, or soil; to streak; to defile.
   
   
   [Obs.] "The filth that did it ray." Spenser.
8. A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius. See Radius.
9. To send forth or shoot out; to cause to shine out; as, to ray smiles.
   
   
   [R.] Thomson.
10. One of the radiating spines, or cartilages, supporting the fins of fishes.
    
    
    (b)
11. A line of light or heat proceeding from a radiant or reflecting point; a single element of light or heat propagated continuously; as, a solar ray; a polarized ray.
    
    
    (b)
12. Sight; perception; vision; -- from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
    
    

    All eyes direct their rays
    On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze. Pope.

13. One of a system of diverging lines passing through a point, and regarded as extending indefinitely in both directions. See Half-ray.
    
    

    Bundle of rays. (Geom.) See Pencil of rays, below. -- Extraordinary ray (Opt.), that one of two parts of a ray divided by double refraction which does not follow the ordinary law of refraction. -- Ordinary ray (Opt.), that one of the two parts of a ray divided by double refraction which follows the usual or ordinary law of refraction. -- Pencil of rays (Geom.), a definite system of rays. -- Ray flower, or Ray floret (Bot.), one of the marginal flowers of the capitulum in such composite plants as the aster, goldenrod, daisy, and sunflower. They have an elongated, strap-shaped corolla, while the corollas of the disk flowers are tubular and five-lobed. -- Ray point (Geom.), the common point of a pencil of rays. -- Röntgen ray (rnt"gn) (Phys.), a kind of ray generated in a very highly exhausted vacuum tube by the electrical discharge. It is capable of passing through many bodies opaque to light, and producing photographic and fluorescent effects by which means pictures showing the internal structure of opaque objects are made, called radiographs, or sciagraphs.. So called from the discoverer, W. C. Röntgen. -- X ray, the Röntgen ray; -- so called by its discoverer because of its enigmatical character, x being an algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity.