spray bow

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From spray +‎ bow, by analogy with rainbow.

Noun

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spray bow (plural spray bows)

  1. (meteorology) A rainbow formed from water spray, especially that which emanates from a waterfall.
    • 1861 January, anonymous author, The Westminster Review, Canada, page 34:
      M. Kohl gives us some graphic descriptions, especially of the scene behind the Horse-shoe Fall, and of a lunar spray-bow on the American, for which we must refer to his book.
    • 1896, William Morris, The Well at the World's End: A Tale, Volume 2, page 94:
      Now that level place, or bench-table went up to the very gushing and green bow of the water, so Ralph took Ursula's hand and led her along, she going a little after him, till he was close to the Well, and stood amidst the spray-bow thereof, so that he looked verily like one of the painted angels on the choir wall of St. Laurence of Upmeads.
    • 1935, Sir William Beach Thomas, Village England, page 95:
      It would need a long essay in optics, I imagine, to explain why the spray-bow was very blue and the cloud-bow quite without this colour ; for rainbows differ more in their attributes than most observers recognise.
    • 2002, John Naylor, Out of the Blue: A 24-Hour Skywatcher's Guide, page 106:
      I sometimes amuse myself by making spray bows with a plant spray.