MURRAY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Murray mean? 

• MURRAY (noun)
  The noun MURRAY has 3 senses:

1. British classical scholar (born in Australia) who advocated the League of Nations and the United Nations (1866-1957)

2. Scottish philologist and the lexicographer who shaped the Oxford English Dictionary (1837-1915)

3. a southeast Australian river; flows westward and then south into the Indian Ocean at Adelaide

  Familiarity information: MURRAY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MURRAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

British classical scholar (born in Australia) who advocated the League of Nations and the United Nations (1866-1957)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

George Gilbert Aime Murphy; Gilbert Murray; Murray

Instance hypernyms:

classical scholar; classicist (a student of ancient Greek and Latin)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Scottish philologist and the lexicographer who shaped the Oxford English Dictionary (1837-1915)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

James Augustus Henry Murray; James Augustus Murray; James Murray; Murray; Sir James Augustus Henry Murray; Sir James Augustus Murray; Sir James Murray

Instance hypernyms:

lexicographer; lexicologist (a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language)

philologist; philologue (a humanist specializing in classical scholarship)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A southeast Australian river; flows westward and then south into the Indian Ocean at Adelaide

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Murray; Murray River

Instance hypernyms:

river (a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek))

Holonyms ("Murray" is a part of...):

Australia; Commonwealth of Australia (a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony)

Australia (the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean)

 Context examples 

It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear child Lucy Westenra.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And we were really surprised by that result because it wasn’t something we were expecting or looking for, said Murray.

(Vitamin A Supplement May Thwart Tuberculosis Infection, Jessica Berman/VOA)

The new images represent Curiosity's last stop in the Murray Buttes, where the rover has been driving for just over one month.

(Mars Rover Views Spectacular Layered Rock Formations, NASA)

"Axial volcano has had at least three eruptions, that we know of, over the past 20 years," said Rick Murray, director of NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.

(Underwater volcano's fiery eruption captured in detail by seafloor observatory, NSF)

The Signet Classic text is based on the first edition, published by John Murray, London, in 1818—the year following Miss Austen's death.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Professor Murray will, I am sure, excuse me if I say that he has the common fault of most Englishmen of being inaudible.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The evidence of those who had played with him—Mr. Murray, Sir John Hardy, and Colonel Moran—showed that the game was whist, and that there was a fairly equal fall of the cards.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"That was Miss Mina Murray?" Again I assented.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But Murray was careful to stress her study did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between vitamin A deficiency and development of tuberculosis.

(Vitamin A Supplement May Thwart Tuberculosis Infection, Jessica Berman/VOA)

The layered geologic past of Mars is revealed in stunning detail in new color images returned by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently exploring the Murray Buttes region of lower Mount Sharp.

(Mars Rover Views Spectacular Layered Rock Formations, NASA)