hay

¹ American  

[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.

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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  

[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.

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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

Etymology

Origin of hay

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

Example Sentences

Scotland made hay by moving the ball out wide and stretching England.

From BBC

"From cutting hay to feeding the cattle to maintaining equipment, maintaining staff, feed, everything has gone up," he said.

From Barron's

One by one, cattle fall behind him single file to consume a breakfast of ground corn and hay.

From The Wall Street Journal

Feedlot cows are given a special blend of hay, alfalfa, soybean meal, sometimes almond hulls and even what we’d call leftovers — human candy and leftover baked goods.

From Los Angeles Times

I asked him: What time do you hit the hay?

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• fodder
• grass