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bay

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Bay, bây, bẫy, bảy, bāy, baþ, and бау

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian or Basque badia. Partly displaced native Old English byht, whence bight.

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  2. (geography) A body of water (especially the sea) contained by a concave shoreline.
    This hotel has a great view across the bay.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
  3. A bank or dam to keep back water.
Synonyms
  • (body of water): gulf
Derived terms
(particular bays and places named after bays):
Translations
body of water

Etymology 2

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.
  2. Bay leaf, the leaf of this or certain other species of tree or shrub, used as a herb.
  3. A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeche in Mexico.
  4. (in the plural, now rare) The leaves of this shrub, woven into a garland used to reward a champion or victor; hence, fame, victory.
  5. (US, dialect) A tract covered with bay trees.
  6. (obsolete) A berry.
Synonyms
Derived terms
(terms derived from bay (plant)):
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English, from Old French baee, beee, from the verb beer (“gape open”), from Early Medieval Latin batāre. Compare Modern French baie. More at bevel, badinage.

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  2. An opening in a wall, especially between two columns.
  3. An internal recess; a compartment or area surrounded on three sides.
    • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:
      Wrex: And Shepard--I like what you've done with the Normandy. Got tired of always hanging around the cargo bay before.
    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
      A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
  4. A display unit in a shop or store, especially a large metal one
    end bay
    gondola bay
    wall bay
  5. The distance between two supports in a vault or building with a pitched roof.
  6. (nautical) Each of the spaces, port and starboard, between decks, forward of the bitts, in sailing warships.
  7. (rail transport) A bay platform.
    • 1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 149:
      There is a short bay at the west end of each platform, but neither is used for passenger trains.
  8. A bay window.
Derived terms
(Terms derived from bay Etymology 3):
Translations

Etymology 4

From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form of baier, abaier.

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. The excited howling of dogs when hunting or being attacked.
    • c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 2, scene 2, lines 1–6:
      The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, / The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. / Uncouple here, and let us make a bay / And wake the Emperor and his lovely bride, / And rouse the Prince, and ring a hunter's peal, / That all the court may echo with the noise.
  2. (by extension) The climactic confrontation between hunting-dogs and their prey.
  3. (figuratively) A state of being obliged to face an antagonist or a difficulty, when escape has become impossible.
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay.
    • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
      The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

bay (third-person singular simple present bays, present participle baying, simple past and past participle bayed)

  1. (intransitive) To howl.
  2. (transitive) To bark at; hence, to follow with barking; to bring or drive to bay.
    to bay the bear
    • a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 5, scene 5, lines 222–223:
      Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set / The dogs o'th' street to bay me
  3. (transitive) To pursue noisily, like a pack of hounds.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 5

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

From Middle English bay, bai, from Old French bai, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

Adjective

bay (comparative bayer or more bay, superlative bayest or most bay)

  2. (especially of horses) Of a reddish-brown colour.
    • 2003 January 8, Stuart Lavietes, “F. William Free, 74, Ad Man Behind 'Fly Me'”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      Mr. Free also owned restaurants and bred horses. His bay gelding, Packett's Landing, won almost $800,000 in his five-year career in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

bay (countable and uncountable, plural bays)

  2.  A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.
    bay:  
  3. A horse of this color.
    • 1877, George Nevile, Horses and Riding, page 105:
      […] browns are the soberest, bays are the worst tempered, and chestnuts are the most foolish.
Quotations
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

References

    Anagrams

    Anguthimri

    Cebuano

    Cornish

    Crimean Tatar

    Guianese Creole

    Haitian Creole

    Hone

    Ladino

    Nyunga

    San Juan Guelavía Zapotec

    Spanish

    Tandaganon

    Tatar

    Tày

    Turkish

    Vietnamese

    Zoogocho Zapotec

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