hay

• enPR: hā, IPA^(key): /heɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: hey
• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English hey, from Old English hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi, from Proto-Germanic *hawją (compare West Frisian hea, Dutch hooi, German Heu, Norwegian høy), from *hawwaną (“to hew, cut down”). More at hew.

hay (countable and uncountable, plural hays)

1. (uncountable) Grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder.
   • 1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, OCLC 1064186951:

     Make hay while sunne shines.

   • 1857, Charles Louis Flint, Grasses and Forage Plants: A Practical Treatise […]

     Hay may be dried too much as well as too little.

2. (countable) Any mix of green leafy plants used for fodder.
3. (slang) Cannabis; marijuana.
   • 1947, William Burroughs, letter, 19 Feb 1947:

     I would like some of that hay. Enclose $20.

4. A net set around the haunt of an animal, especially a rabbit.

• hay on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

hay (third-person singular simple present hays, present participle haying, simple past and past participle hayed)

1. To cut grasses or herb plants for use as animal fodder.
2. To lay snares for rabbits.

• bale
• straw

From Middle English haye, heye, a conflation of Old English heġe (“hedge, fence”) and Old English ġehæġ (“an enclosed piece of land”).

hay (plural hays)

1. (obsolete) A hedge.
2. (obsolete) A net placed around the lair or burrow of an animal.
3. (obsolete) An enclosure, haw.
4. (obsolete) A circular country dance.
   • 1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, OCLC 837836359, (please specify the page):

     My men like Satyres grazing on the lawnes,
     Shall with their Goate feete daunce an antick hay,

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     I’ll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play
     On the tabour to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.

From the sound it represents, by analogy with other letters such as kay and gay. The expected form in English if the h had survived in the Latin name of the letter "h", hā.

hay (plural hays)

1. The letter for the h sound in Pitman shorthand.

• aitch, the Latin letter for this sound

• Hay (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• AYH, YHA, Yah, yah

• haya

• IPA^(key): /haɪ/

hay

1. to know

hay

1. truly!, indeed!

hay

1. possible
2. known

hay

1. (dialectal) burning

hay

1. (of land) exposed, bare

hay

1. (Tankarana) an insect which damages rice crops

hay (plural hayes)

1. Alternative form of haye (“net”)

hay

1. Alternative form of hey (“hey”)

hay (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of hey (“hay”)

hay

1. Alternative form of he (“they”)

hay

1. Alternative form of heye (“hedge”)

hay

1. Alternative form of haven (“to have”)

hay

1. first-person singular present indicative of hayr

hay

1. to hold, have

From Old Spanish ha ý (“it has there”) (compare Catalan hi ha and French il y a), from ha, third-person singular present of aver (“to have”), + ý (locative pronoun, compare modern French y and Catalan hi), from Latin ibī (“there”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈai/ [ˈai̯]

• Audio (Colombia)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ai
• Syllabification: hay
• Homophone: ay

hay

1. third-person singular present indicative of haber

   there is, there are

   Hay dos tiendas que venden películas.

   There are two stores that sell films.

• no hay mal que por bien no venga
• no hay quien

• IPA^(key): /haj/, [haɪ̯]

Compare Hokkien 害矣 (hāi--ah).

hay

1. Alternative form of ay
2. an expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, frustration, or the like: sigh

   Hay... Antok na ako!

   Sigh... I'm sleepy already!

• hay naku

hay

1. (obsolete) act of frighting or startling a dog

Borrowed from English high.

hay

1. (slang) high on drugs; drugged

   Synonyms: sabog, basag, bogsa

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [haj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [haj˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ha(ː)j˧˧]

Cognate with Arem hɪː ("to understand").

hay • (𫨩)

1. (archaic or literary) to know; to get to know; to learn
   • 2018 January 22, Viễn Sự, Sơn Lâm, “Trẻ con lai ở miền Tây: Con không cha như nhà không nóc [The mixed children in Southwestern Vietnam: a fatherless child is like a roofless house]”, in Tuổi Trẻ Online‎:

     Hồi mẹ nó ẵm về nước, bà nội nó nói mua cho cái vé khứ hồi, tới hồi ra sân bay về lại Hàn Quốc thì mới hay cái vé đi có một chiều.

     When his mother carried him in her arms back to Vietnam, his paternal grandmother said they had bought a return ticket for her, but she realised it was only a one-way ticket when she was at the airport, trying to return to Korea.

2. (‘hay’ + verb) to have a habit of (doing something)

   Ai hay vẽ rồi sẽ vẽ hay.

   Who draws habitually will draw well.

   Con hay nói nhiều lắm.

   You, child, have a habit of talking too much / You, child, are talkative.

• The sense of “to know” is now mostly used in fixed expressions, such as đến đâu hay đến đó and cho hay (“to inform”), in the non-literary language.

hay • (𫨩)

1. good, as in useful, inventive, interesting or entertaining; compare tốt (good as in high-quality, skillful or ethical)

   Antonyms: dở, tệ, tồi

   ý hay ― a good idea

   Phim hay quá ha !

   That was a great movie!

hay • (𫨩)

1. well

   Antonyms: dở, tệ, tồi

   Ai hay vẽ rồi sẽ vẽ hay.

   Who draws habitually will draw well.

hay (là) (咍)

1. or

   Chọn cái này, hay chọn cái kia

   Choose this one, or choose that one

• hoặc

• IPA^(key): /haj/

hay

1. go, let us go

hay

1. Alternative form of hea (“he”)
   • 1927, “LAMENT OF A WIDOW”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, line 6:

     "Hay was mee gude plowere,

     "He was my good plougher,

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 130