okay
- OK.
OK
or O.K., o·kay
- all right; proceeding normally; satisfactory or under control: Things are OK at the moment.
- correct, permissible, or acceptable; meeting standards: Is this suit OK to wear to a formal party?
- doing well or in good health; managing adequately: She's been OK since the operation.
- adequate but unexceptional or unremarkable; tolerable: The job they did was OK, nothing more.
- estimable, dependable, or trustworthy; likable: an OK person.
- all right; well enough; successfully; fine: She'll manage OK on her own. He sings OK, but he can't tap dance.
- (used as an affirmative response) yes; surely.
- (used as an interrogative or interrogative tag) all right?; do you agree?
- (used to express agreement, understanding, acceptance, or the like): OK, I'll get it for you.
- (used as an introductory or transitional expletive): OK, now where were we?
- an approval, agreement, or endorsement: They gave their OK to her leave of absence.
- to put one's endorsement on or indicate one's approval of (a request, piece of copy, bank check, etc.); authorize; initial: Would you OK my application?
Origin of OK
Usage note
Examples from the Web for okay
Contemporary Examples
He said it was okay, that he had been busy too… busy fighting serious intestinal problems.
King Lear becomes Lear texting “okay who wants a kingdom,” to which Goneril replies “me me I do.”
My husband rubs my back and makes soothing noises and tells me everything is going to be okay.
Det. 1: Okay, now tell us how it went, David—tell us how you did it.
Allowing some people to discriminate sends the message that discrimination is okay.
Historical Examples
They did not like punks getting arrested and guns going off without their okay.
Arm of the LawHarry Harrison
Okay, Chief, said Carter, though he knew this would be the toughest job yet.
Spawn of the CometHarold Thompson Rich
Mike says it's okay to serve them if they come in from the beach just as they are.
The Man from TimeFrank Belknap Long
Nobody cares on the Road what you do, so I was okay with my belt-length beard.
See?Edward G. Robles
"Okay, Fell," the captain said, without a sign of disapproval.
Police Your PlanetLester del Rey
okay
- a variant of O.K.
OK
- Oklahoma
Word Origin and History for okay
see OK.
OK
1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (e.g. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go;" N.C. for "'nuff ced;" K.Y. for "know yuse"). In the case of O.K., the abbreviation is of "oll korrect."
Probably further popularized by use as an election slogan by the O.K. Club, New York boosters of Democratic president Martin Van Buren's 1840 re-election bid, in allusion to his nickname Old Kinderhook, from his birth in the N.Y. village of Kinderhook. Van Buren lost, the word stuck, in part because it filled a need for a quick way to write an approval on a document, bill, etc. Spelled out as okeh, 1919, by Woodrow Wilson, on assumption that it represented Choctaw okeh "it is so" (a theory which lacks historical documentation); this was ousted quickly by okay after the appearance of that form in 1929. Greek immigrants to America who returned home early 20c. having picked up U.S. speech mannerisms were known in Greece as okay-boys, among other things.
The noun is first attested 1841; the verb 1888. Okey-doke is student slang first attested 1932.