Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Rainbow
Rain′bowˊ
(rān′bōˊ)
, Noun.
A bow or arch exhibiting, in concentric bands, the several colors of the spectrum, and formed in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun’s rays in drops of falling rain.
☞ Besides the ordinary bow, called also primary rainbow, which is formed by two refractions and one reflection, there is also another often seen exterior to it, called the secondary rainbow, concentric with the first, and separated from it by a small interval. It is formed by two refractions and two reflections, is much fainter than the primary bow, and has its colors arranged in the reverse order from those of the latter.
Lunar rainbow
, a fainter arch or rainbow, formed by the moon.
– Marine rainbow
, Sea bow
a similar bow seen in the spray of waves at sea.
– Rainbow trout
(Zool.)
, a bright-colored trout (
– Salmo irideus
), native of the mountains of California
, but now extensively introduced into the Eastern States
, Japan
, and other countries; – called also brook trout
, mountain trout
, and golden trout
. Rainbow wrasse
. (Zool.)
See under
– Wrasse
. Supernumerary rainbow
, a smaller bow, usually of red and green colors only, sometimes seen within the primary or without the secondary rainbow, and in contact with them.
Webster 1828 Edition
Rainbow
RA'INBOW
,Noun.
The moon sometimes forms a bow or arch of light, more faint than that formed by the sun, and called lunar rainbow. Similar bows at sea are called marine rainbows or sea bows.
Definition 2024
Rainbow
Rainbow
See also: rainbow
English
Noun
Rainbow (plural Rainbows)
- A member of the Rainbow Guides, a Girl Guide movement for younger girls.
rainbow
rainbow
See also: Rainbow
English
A rainbow (multicoloured arch shape).
Noun
rainbow (plural rainbows)
- A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
- Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.
- (often used with “of”) A wide assortment; a varied multitude.
- a rainbow of possibilities
- (figuratively) An illusion, mirage.
- Many electoral promises are rainbows, vanishing soon after poll day.
- (baseball) A curveball, particularly a slow one.
- (poker slang) In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.
- Rainbow trout.
- 1911, Francis R. Steel, Catching the Rainbow Trout, in The Outing Magazine, volume 58, page 482:
- Finally, by actual trial, I have found that I can catch more rainbow by using one fly than with a two or three-fly cast.
- 1911, Francis R. Steel, Catching the Rainbow Trout, in The Outing Magazine, volume 58, page 482:
Synonyms
- (prismatic reflection): spectrum
Derived terms
Terms derived from rainbow
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Translations
multicoloured arch in the sky
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prismatic reflection
assortment, varied multitude
baseball: curveball — see curveball
poker: flop containing three different suits
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Adjective
rainbow (not comparable)
- Multicoloured.
- (attributive, chiefly US) Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.
- 1994, John Simon, Of Dogs, Their Masters, and Others, in New York magazine, September 5 1994, page 51:
- That Asian-American actor Thomas Ikeda contributes a pleasingly frantic Panthino would not be considered rainbow enough.
- 2006, Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan, Sinatra: The Life, page 246:
- He went along with them because the Pack was a rainbow group — two Italian-Americans, a black man, a Jew (Bishop), and a sometime Englishman (Lawford) — and they were making a point.
- 2007, Melissa Haussman, Birgit Sauer, Gendering the state in the age of globalization, page 67:
- The 1999 June elections led to a surprise change in the governing coalition from the long-term ruling Christian Democrats to a rainbow group of Greens, Liberals, and Socialists.
- 2007, Hooson, in a Letter to the Western Mail, 19 June 2007, published in Crossing the Rubicon: coalition politics Welsh style by John Osmond, page 28:
- […] it seemed to me to be naive indeed for the Liberal Democrats to believe that they could simply enter into a rainbow alliance against the Labour Government.
- 2008, Bidyut Chakrabarty, Indian politics and society since independence, page 76:
- Mayawati has succeeded in building a social coalition that inverts the pyramid of caste/class hierarchy by building a rainbow alliance of social groups, now dominated by that greatest underclass of all, namely Dalits.
- 1994, John Simon, Of Dogs, Their Masters, and Others, in New York magazine, September 5 1994, page 51:
- (attributive) LGBT.
- 2005, Alan McKee, The public sphere: an introduction, page 167:
- Similarly, the question of who belongs in such a rainbow alliance isn't set. It can include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals. It can include people who are 'questioning' which culture they belong to [...]
- 2005, Alan McKee, The public sphere: an introduction, page 167:
- (poker, chiefly of a flop) Composed entirely of different suits.
Usage notes
In the United States, 'rainbow' groups/families/alliances/coalitions were originally those made up of several races or ethnicities. The term is now used more broadly, to refer (in the 2007 quotation, for example) to an alliance of several political parties.
Translations
multicoloured
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References
- Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523
Verb
rainbow (third-person singular simple present rainbows, present participle rainbowing, simple past and past participle rainbowed)
- (transitive) To pattern with many colours, like a rainbow.