Definition of "rainbow" in English

noun

1. A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.

2. Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.

3. (often used with “of”) A wide assortment; a varied multitude.

   • a rainbow of possibilities

4. (figurative) An illusion; a mirage.

   • Many electoral promises are rainbows, vanishing soon after poll day.

5. (baseball) A curveball, particularly a slow one.

6. (soccer) A trick in which the player makes the ball arc over the opponent's head using both feet; rainbow kick

7. (poker slang) In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits.

8. Rainbow trout.

9. (figuratively, sometimes derogatory) A person within the LGBT community.

   • Oh look, the rainbow came back.

adjective

1. Multicolored, especially if in rainbow order.

2. (attributive, chiefly US) Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.

   • That Asian-American actor Thomas Ikeda contributes a pleasingly frantic Panthino would not be considered rainbow enough.
   • […] 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.

3. (attributive) LGBT.

4. (poker, chiefly of a flop) Composed entirely of different suits.

5. (mathematics, cryptography) Of or pertaining to rainbow tables.

   • rainbow attack

verb

1. (transitive) To brighten with, or as with, a rainbow; to pattern with the colours of the rainbow.

2. (intransitive) To take the appearance of a rainbow.

3. (climbing) In climbing gyms where the rocks to climb are colored to indicate suggested climbing routes, to climb rocks of different colors, thereby ignoring such routes.