umbrellas

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of umbrella.

   Bright umbrellas dotted the beach throughout the afternoon.

   The shop displays a row of umbrellas near its entrance.

   Note

   A single regular -s plural serves every kind of umbrella: rain shields on a beach, the reflectors a photographer sets around a lamp, the domed bodies of jellyfish, and the attacking formation five players make around a goal. Figurative umbrellas count the same way, so a group can sit under several umbrellas at once. The identical spelling is also the verb's present-tense form, which shelters or gathers things rather than naming them.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of umbrella.

   Note

   The verb works both with and without an object. With one, it shelters or gathers: the agency umbrellas a dozen offices. Without one, it describes shape or motion: a canopy umbrellas into a dome, or a jellyfish umbrellas through the water. Both intransitive uses borrow pictures the noun already holds, the open frame and the jellyfish's bell, so the image usually tells you which kind of sentence you are in.

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