▪ I. † ra1 Sc. Obs.
Also 6 rae, raye.
[= ON. rá (Da. and Sw. rå), Du. ra (Kilian rae, rha, rah), MLG. râ, MHG. rahe (G. rahe, raa):—Comm. Teut. *rahā pole, stake. In Sc. prob. adopted from ON., or Du.]
A sail-yard.
| 1494 Accts. Ld. High Treasurer Scot. (1877) I. 253 Ane gret mast, ane ra. Ibid., Thir rais and the takling. 1513 Douglas æneis v. xiv. 8 Thai..Set in a fang, and threw the ra abak. 1566 Knox Hist. Ref. (1846) I. 109 Our Schotish schippis war stayed, the sayles tackin from thare rayes. 1589 Munim. Irvine (1890) I. 76 To fens and arreist the same schipis..and take the saillis fra the rais. |
▪ II. ‖ ra2 Physical Geogr.
(rɑː)
Pl. ras, ‖ raer.
[Norw.]
One of the terminal moraines near the coast in southern Norway and Sweden that are in the form of long ridges of gravel and clay with a covering of large stones.
| 1902 Geol. Mag. Decade IV. IX. 319 Outside the terminal ra, that is, between the moraine and the coastline,..there is a widely spread deposit of clay. 1957 J. K. Charlesworth Quaternary Era II. xxx. 627 The radially dispersed erratics and diverging striae transverse to the morainic Raer..finally overcame both prejudice and honest conviction. Ibid. xlii. 1172 The Ras, traceable as far as Stavanger, have been correlated with the double moraines observed in many fjords and fjord-valleys. |
▪ III. ra
obs. f. raw; obs. north. f. roe.