hay

[hey] /heɪ/
noun
1.
grass, clover, alfalfa, etc., cut and dried for use as forage.
2.
grass mowed or intended for mowing.
3.
Slang.
  1. a small sum of money:
    Twenty dollars an hour for doing very little certainly ain't hay.
  2. money:
    A thousand dollars for a day's work is a lot of hay!
4.
Slang. marijuana.
verb (used with object)
5.
to convert (plant material) into hay.
6.
to furnish (horses, cows, etc.) with hay.
verb (used without object)
7.
to cut grass, clover, or the like, and store for use as forage.
Idioms
8.
a roll in the hay, Slang. sexual intercourse.
9.
hit the hay, Informal. to go to bed:
It got to be past midnight before anyone thought of hitting the hay.
10.
in the hay, in bed; retired, especially for the night:
By ten o'clock he's in the hay.
11.
make hay of, to scatter in disorder; render ineffectual:
The destruction of the manuscript made hay of two years of painstaking labor.
12.
make hay while the sun shines, to seize an opportunity when it presents itself:
If you want to be a millionaire, you have to make hay while the sun shines.
Also, make hay.
Origin
before 900; Middle English; Old English hēg; cognate with German Heu, Old Norse hey, Gothic hawi. See hew
Related forms
hayey, adjective
unhayed, adjective

Hay

[hey] /heɪ/
noun
1.
John Milton, 1838–1905, U.S. statesman and author.
2.
a river in NW Canada, flowing NE to the Great Slave Lake. 530 miles (853 km) long.
Examples from the web for hay
  • Here's to high blue skies and making hay while the sun is rolling through the heavens.
  • If clay particles are suspended in the water because of poor water chemistry, spread barley straw or hay around the shore.
  • They also had half the incidence of hay fever and other allergies.
  • Store sells everything from rainy-day outerwear to nursery stock to hay for horses.
  • It is commonly, although inaccurately, called hay fever.
  • The hay for the ponies is still in the stables in the back.
  • Surround the plant with several inches of loose mulch such as hay or pine needles.
  • Beautiful aromas of peaches, apricots, and newly mown hay.
  • In a place full of colors, this saffron yellow really stood out, even against the hay.
  • Everyone was crowded around one orangutan who was hiding under a bail of hay.
British Dictionary definitions for hay

hay1

/heɪ/
noun
1.
  1. grass, clover, etc, cut and dried as fodder
  2. (in combination): a hayfield, a hayloft
2.
(slang) hit the hay, to go to bed
3.
make hay of, to throw into confusion
4.
make hay while the sun shines, to take full advantage of an opportunity
5.
(informal) roll in the hay, sexual intercourse or heavy petting
verb
6.
to cut, dry, and store (grass, clover, etc) as fodder
7.
(transitive) to feed with hay
Word Origin
Old English hieg; related to Old Norse hey, Gothic hawi, Old Frisian hē, Old High German houwi; see hew

hay2

/heɪ/
noun
1.
a circular figure in country dancing
2.
a former country dance in which the dancers wove in and out of a circle
Word Origin
C16: of uncertain origin

Hay

/heɪ/
noun
1.
Will. 1888–1949, British music-hall comedian, who later starred in films, such as Oh, Mr Porter! (1937)
Word Origin and History for hay
n.

"grass mown," Old English heg (Anglian), hieg, hig (West Saxon) "grass cut or mown for fodder," from Proto-Germanic *haujam (cf. Old Norse hey, Old Frisian ha, Middle Dutch hoy, German Heu, Gothic hawi "hay"), literally "that which is cut," or "that which can be mowed," from PIE *kau- "to hew, strike" (cf. Old English heawan "to cut;" see hew). Slang phrase hit the hay (pre-1880) was originally "to sleep in a barn;" hay in the general figurative sense of "bedding" (e.g. roll in the hay) is from 1903.

Slang definitions & phrases for hay

hay

noun

Marijuana; herb

Related Terms

hit the hay, indian hay, that ain't hay

[Narcotics; 1940s+]


hay in the Bible

properly so called, was not in use among the Hebrews; straw was used instead. They cut the grass green as it was needed. The word rendered "hay" in Prov. 27:25 means the first shoots of the grass. In Isa. 15:6 the Revised Version has correctly "grass," where the Authorized Version has "hay."

Idioms and Phrases with hay

hay

see: