bay

• enPR: bā, IPA^(key): /beɪ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

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

bay (plural bays)

1. (obsolete) A berry.
2. Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.
3. Bay leaf, the leaf of this or certain other species of tree or shrub, used as a herb.
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.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:

     both you here with many a cursed oth, / Sweare she is yours, and stirre vp bloudie frayes, / To win a willow bough, whilest other weares the bayes.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Trumbull

     The patriot's honours and the poet's bays.

5. (US, dialectal) A tract covered with bay trees.
6. A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeche in Mexico.

• (Laurus nobilis): bay laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, bay tree
• (Garland symbolic of fame, victor): laurels

From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian or Basque badia.

bay (plural bays)

1. (geography) A body of water (especially the sea) more or less three-quarters surrounded by land.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     '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.

2. A bank or dam to keep back water.

• (body of water): gulf

From French baie, from Old French baé, masculine singular past participle of the verb baer, from Vulgar Latin *badō (“I am open”).

bay (plural bays)

1. An opening in a wall, especially between two columns.
2. An internal recess; a compartment or area surrounded on three sides.
   • 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.

3. The distance between two supports in a vault or building with a pitched roof.
4. (nautical) Each of the spaces, port and starboard, between decks, forward of the bitts, in sailing warships.
5. (rail transport) A bay platform.
6. A bay window.

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

bay (plural bays)

1. The excited howling of dogs when hunting or being attacked.
   • c. 1588–1593, Shakespeare, William, 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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay.

   • (Can we date this quote?) I. Taylor

     The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts.

• at bay

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

1. (intransitive) To howl.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bayed.

2. (transitive) To bark at; hence, to follow with barking; to bring or drive to bay.

   to bay the bear

   • a. 1611, Shakespeare, William, 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.

• bay at the moon

From French baie, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

bay (comparative more bay, superlative most bay)

1. Of a reddish-brown colour (especially of horses).

• bay cat
• bay lynx

bay (uncountable)

1. A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.

   bay colour:  

2. A horse of this color.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:bay.

• abeyance
• badinage
• baize
• daphne
• voe
• Wikipedia article on bays in geography
• Appendix:Colors
• Wikipedia article on bay, the horse colour/color

• YBA, aby

Aphetic form of abay.

bay

1. an address to a male friend

Compare balay.

bay

1. a house

• IPA^(key): /bæi/

bay m (plural bayow)

1. kiss

• amm, abm
• cussyn

• amma, abma

bay

1. rich

bay

1. to give

• ba
• ban

bay

1. dog

• Anne Storch, Hone, in Coding Participant Marking: Construction Types in Twelve African Languages, edited by Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal

bay

1. rich, noble

Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰉𐰖‎ (b¹j¹, bay, “rich person, noble”), from Proto-Turkic *bāj (“rich, noble; many, numerous”).

The meaning “sir, gentleman” was coined during the language reforms in parallel to bey.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaj/

bay (definite accusative bayı, plural baylar)

1. (countable) gentleman
2. (title used for a man) Mr.

Used as a title, the word is usually capitalized and followed by a person's name, often his surname or full name (as in “Bay Ahmet Şık”). This is unlike the more traditional title bey, which is used after a person's name, most commonly just his given name (as in “Ahmet Bey”).

• bey
• beyefendi

• albay
• yarbay
• bayan

bay (comparative daha bay, superlative en bay)

1. (dated) rich, wealthy

• zengin (rich)
• varlıklı (rich)

• yoksul (poor)
• fakir (poor)
• züğürt (poor)

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaj˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaj˧˧]

From Proto-Vietic *pər, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *par; cognates include Muong păl, Bahnar păr, Pacoh pár and Mon ပဝ် (pɔ).

bay (𠖤, 𩙻)

1. to fly (travel through the air)
2. to flutter (flap or wave quickly but irregularly)
3. to fly (travel very fast)
4. to fade away

bay

1. with ease; in a fast-paced manner

   cãi bay

   to snap at each other

(classifier cái) bay (𨭍)

1. trowel

See bây.

bay

1. (informal) you (second-person plural)

• bây

• mày

• "bay" in Hồ Ngọc Đức, Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (details)