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• hay
  hay

  noun

  grass, clover, alfalfa, etc., cut and dried for use as forage.
• Hay
  Hay

  noun

  John Milton, 1838–1905, U.S. statesman and author.

hay

¹ American  

[hay] / 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.

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verb (used with object)

1. to convert (plant material) into hay.

2. to furnish (horses, cows, etc.) with hay.

verb (used without object)

1. to cut grass, clover, or the like, and store for use as forage.

idioms

1. make hay of, to scatter in disorder; render ineffectual.

   The destruction of the manuscript made hay of two years of painstaking labor.

2. make hay while the sun shines, to seize an opportunity when it presents itself: Also make hay.

   If you want to be a millionaire, you have to make hay while the sun shines.

3. in the hay, in bed; retired, especially for the night.

   By ten o'clock he's in the hay.

4. hit the hay, to go to bed.

   It got to be past midnight before anyone thought of hitting the hay.

5. a roll in the hay, sexual intercourse.

Hay ² American  

[hay] / 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.

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hay ¹ British  

/ heɪ /

noun

1. 1. grass, clover, etc, cut and dried as fodder

   2. ( in combination )

      a hayfield

      a hayloft

2. slang to go to bed

3. to throw into confusion

4. to take full advantage of an opportunity

5. informal sexual intercourse or heavy petting

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verb

1. to cut, dry, and store (grass, clover, etc) as fodder

2. (tr) to feed with hay

hay ² British  

/ 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

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Hay ³ British  

/ heɪ /

noun

1. Will. 1888–1949, British music-hall comedian, who later starred in films, such as Oh, Mr Porter! (1937)

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hay More Idioms  

1. see hit the hay; make hay while the sun shines; roll in the hay; that ain't hay.

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Other Word Forms

• hayey
  adjective
• unhayed
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of hay

before 900; Middle English; Old English hēg; cognate with German Heu, Old Norse hey, Gothic hawi. See hew

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Explanation

Hay is a type of dried grass that's fed to certain farm animals. You might buy bags of hay to feed your pet rabbit, who likes to nibble on it. Hay is a mixture of grassy plants grown in fields, cut or mown, bundled in bales, and stored until ready to be fed to livestock. Hay and straw aren't the same thing; hay is cut when it's green, while straw is made up of the leftover dried stems and leaves of plants that have been harvested. And while some animals feed on straw too, hay is more nutritious. The Old English root is heg, "grass cut or mown."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hay Hay

At one checkpoint, National Guard soldiers opened the trailer and, seeing a wall of hay bales, let it pass.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026

He has cut back hay deliveries to local clients and is meeting up with friends less frequently.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

A project to preserve vulnerable vegetation and wildlife will see hundreds of wildflower plants introduced to an upland hay meadow.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

Fears about software disruptions have subsided, leaving shares of Microsoft, which is also making hay with its Azure cloud division, up 28% over the past three months.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

Yesterday, we started spreading the worm poop and putting these hay rolls around.

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz

Turning to contact between Peggie and the RCN union, Hay said the first time Peggie had put in writing that she felt "failed from the outset" by the union was in March 2025.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

"We extend our most sincere condolences to Ken's sons Chris and Jeremy, all the Hay family and his very many friends."

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

“If I were in California, I’d be proud of the attorney general. At the end of the day, he got the best he could,” Hay said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

He’s a law professor at George Washington University and a former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, so like Hay, he knows a bit about antitrust enforcement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

“She’s very serious about it. Next time you visit, ask to see her copy of the Khokhmes Hay ad.”

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

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Related Words

• fodder
• grass

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