ruby

plural rubies

1. countableuncountableA clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.

   “Alas! I have no ruby now,” said the Prince; “my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago.”

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 26

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   They respond instantly to the faintest rustling in the covert of a sheaf of Ulysses S. Grants, or the homely, rustic tinkle of a wheelbarrow full of rubies being jounced along over a nightclub floor.

   1957, The Monthly Record, volume 61, page 22

   Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.

   2012 March 28, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2012, page 128

2. countableuncountableA deep red colour.

   When now I thinke you can behold such sights, / And keepe the naturall Rubie of your Cheekes, / When mine is blanch'd with feare.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

3. countableuncountablegovernmentThe tincture red or gules.

   The Field is Ruby, on a Bend Topaz, three Martlets Diamond. [...] Checkie Topaz and Saphire, a Fesse within a Bordure Ruby, by the Name of Clifford.

   1726, John Guillim, The Banner Display'd; Or, an Abridgment of Guillim, page 504

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   Elgin. Topaz a Saltier and Chief Ruby, on a Canton Pearl a Lyon Rampant Saphyr, which last is their paternal Coat; and the Field Topaz, and Saltier, and Chief Ruby, was the Arms of King Robert the Bruce, they altering the Field from Pearl (as he bore it) to Topaz.

   1720, Francis Nichols, Rudiments of Honour, page 296

   (1) Pearl, a Cross, Ruby, with the Effigies of our Saviour thereon, Topaz, born in Memory of one of the Family's fighting against the Turks. (2) Topaz, a Chief Indented, Saphire. (3) Ruby, three covered Cups, Topaz [...]

   1754, John Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland; Or, a Genealogical History of the ..., page 71

4. countableuncountableA ruby hummer, a South American hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda.
5. countableuncountableA red bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea rubra.
6. UKdateduncountablemediaThe size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5½-point.

   Synonyms: agate

7. countableuncountablemediaA pronunciation guide written above or beside Chinese characters.
8. countableobsoleteuncountableA red spinel.

comparative more ruby · superlative most ruby

1. Of a deep, red color; ruby-red.

present singular third person rubies · participle present rubying · participle past rubied · past rubied

1. poetictransitiveTo make red; to redden.

   With sanguine drops the walls are rubied

   1725–1726, Homer, “Book 20”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

plural rubies

1. slangAlternative letter-case form of Ruby (“curry”).

1. A female given name.

   Ruby, my dear / Hold back that tear / I know he's gone / Your love has flown

   1990, “Dear Ruby^([sic – meaning Ruby, My Dear])”, in Sally Swisher (lyrics), Thelonious Monk (music), Carmen Sings Monk, performed by Carmen McRae

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   And those are her two daughters, Opal and Ruby. Her husband, Joshua, named them. He said they were to be the jewels of his old age. She would never have thought of names like that. There wasn't an ounce of sentiment in her body.

   1992, Karen Kijewski, Kat's Cradle, page 76

2. rareA surname.
3. rareA male given name.
4. computer languagesA dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language developed in the 1990s.

   The final thrust of Bob's argument is that if you strip away all disk I/O (and he cites the move to SSD persistent storage), we'll shift away from interpreted languages such as Ruby and PHP and back to Java.

   2011 October 17, Matthew Baxter-Reynolds, “Java's second coming? Over my cold, dead RAM-cached database”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Jun 2022

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   Ruby began life in Japan as the creation of Yukihiro Matsumoto, known more commonly as Matz. Unlike that of most language developers, Matz's motivation for Ruby was fun and a principle of “least surprise,” in order to improve overall developer productivity.

   2017, Peter Cooper, Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional, Apress, →ISBN, page 100

5. A city in Alaska.
6. A ghost town in Arizona.
7. A town in South Carolina.
8. A town in Wisconsin.
9. A settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
10. A locality in South Gippsland Shire, south eastern Victoria, Australia.

1. CockneyslangA curry; ellipsis of Ruby Murray.

   We're going down the Indian for a Ruby; wanna join us?

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   No matter if you're Asian, Arab or Eskimo, everyone loves a ruby.

   2002, John Sullivan, “Strangers on the Shore”, in Only Fools and Horses