Library / English Dictionary

HAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grass mowed and cured for use as fodder

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("hay" is a kind of...):

fodder (coarse food (especially for livestock) composed of entire plants or the leaves and stalks of a cereal crop)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hay"):

timothy (a grass grown for hay)

Holonyms ("hay" is a substance of...):

haymow (a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Convert (plant material) into hay

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "hay" is one way to...):

convert (change the nature, purpose, or function of something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

You would find it difficult, I dare say, just now, in the middle of a very late hay harvest, to hire a horse and cart?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The disease is linked to an increased risk of developing asthma, hay fever and food allergy.

(Bacteria therapy for eczema shows promise in NIH study, National Institutes of Health)

He afterwards showed me a wisp of hay, and a fetlock full of oats; but I shook my head, to signify that neither of these were food for me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A synthetic alkylamine derivative used in allergic reactions, hay fever, rhinitis, urticaria, and asthma, antihistamine Chlorpheniramine Maleate acts as a competitive histamine H1 receptor antagonist, and displays anticholinergic and mild sedative effects as well.

(Chlorpheniramine Maleate, NCI Thesaurus)

The wind, which had hitherto carried us along with amazing rapidity, sank at sunset to a light breeze; the soft air just ruffled the water and caused a pleasant motion among the trees as we approached the shore, from which it wafted the most delightful scent of flowers and hay.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The frozen particles of ice, brushed from the blades of grass by the wind, and borne across my face; the hard clatter of the horse's hoofs, beating a tune upon the ground; the stiff-tilled soil; the snowdrift, lightly eddying in the chalk-pit as the breeze ruffled it; the smoking team with the waggon of old hay, stopping to breathe on the hill-top, and shaking their bells musically; the whitened slopes and sweeps of Down-land lying against the dark sky, as if they were drawn on a huge slate!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am not referring to casual dating or a roll in the hay, but rather real and heartfelt love, the kind of love you will want to treasure, nurture, and build your life upon.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The luggage has come, and I've been making hay of Amy's Paris finery, trying to find some things I want, said Laurie, coming in the next day to find Mrs. Laurence sitting in her mother's lap, as if being made 'the baby' again.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Scarcely had they set foot on the threshold, when Tom called out, “Don’t bring me any more hay!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Your health care provider may diagnose hay fever based on a physical exam and your symptoms.

(Hay Fever, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)