[f. SPRAY sb.2]
1. trans. To diffuse or send in the form of spray; to scatter in minute drops.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 91. A strong beam of light … sprayed itself into innumerable sparks.
1852. M. Arnold, ‘Ye Storm-winds,’ etc. 49. Where the nich’d snow-bed sprays down Its powdery fall.
1881. Gd. Words, XXII. 51. The solution may be … sprayed freely into the safe.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 685. A 5 per cent. solution of menthol should be sprayed up the nostril.
2. To sprinkle with or as with spray; to wet with fine particles of water or other liquid, esp. by means of a special instrument or apparatus.
1861. Ld. Lytton & Fane, Tannhäuser, 57. While from beneath The creeping billow of calamity Sprays all his hair with cold.
1884. E. P. Roe, Nat. Ser. Story, ix. The foliage was … sprayed by a garden syringe.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 678. An excellent plan of treatment is … to spray the nose with one of the liquid paraffins.
3. absol. To scatter or throw up spray.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., The instrument will either spout or spray.
1906. A. Balfour, in Blackw. Mag., Nov., 664/1. Hundreds of feet below, the Porto, a fine trouting stream,… foams and sprays and chafes.
4. intr. To issue or rise as spray.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., s.v., He caused the perfume to spray.
Hence Sprayed ppl. a.1
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6/3. The argument that there is not the slightest danger of poisoning in using sprayed apples.
