tokay

¹ American  

[toh-key] / toʊˈkeɪ /

noun

1. a gecko, Gekko gecko, of the Malay Archipelago and southeastern Asia: sometimes kept as a pet.

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Tokay ² American  

[toh-key] / toʊˈkeɪ /

noun

1. an aromatic wine made from Furmint grapes grown in the district surrounding Tokay, a town in NE Hungary.

2. Horticulture.

   1. a large, red variety of grape, grown for table use.

   2. the vine bearing this fruit, grown in California.

3. a sweet, strong white wine made in California.

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Tokay ¹ British  

/ təʊˈkeɪ /

noun

1. a fine sweet wine made near Tokaj, Hungary

2. a variety of large sweet grape used to make this wine

3. a similar wine made elsewhere

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tokay ² British  

/ ˈtəʊkeɪ /

noun

1. a small gecko, Gekko gecko, of S and SE Asia, having a retractile claw at the tip of each digit

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Etymology

Origin of tokay

1745–55; < dialectal Malay tokeʔ < Javanese təʔkəʔ (spelling tekek)

Example Sentences

Those of you who enjoy a bit of English literature might recognize Tokaji under its Anglicized name, tokay, which aristocrats like to swizzle in period romances and gaslit murder mysteries.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 23, 2023

The BBC, by contrast, is seeing the epic drama through from the opening glass of tokay to the concluding moment, when Lyra's daemon mutates into a pine marten.

From BBC • Nov. 9, 2020

The sound of one gecko is even embedded in its name: Male tokay geckos, from Asia, make a loud, persistent mating call, “tokay-tokay!”

From National Geographic • Oct. 24, 2015

Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Tsukamoto had not been close, and Mr. Fletcher had no experience growing the farmers’ specialty, flame tokay grapes, but he accepted the offer and soon quit his job.

From New York Times • Jun. 6, 2013

Bernabe had bought it off the distinguished sculptor for a bottle of cheap tokay twelve years ago.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols