bay

This hotel has a great view across the bay.

'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(geography) A body of water (especially the sea) contained by a concave shoreline.

From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian or Basque badia. Partly displaced native Old English byht, whence bight.


bay

Laurus nobilis
Laurus nobilis#Translingual

Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.

Bay leaf, the leaf of this or certain other species of tree or shrub, used as a herb.

A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeche in Mexico.

both you here with many a cursed oth, / Sweare she is yours, and stirre vp bloudie frayes, / To win a willow bough, whilest other weares the bayes.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

The patriot's honours and the poet's bays.

1771, John Trumbull, On the Vanity of Youthful Expectations:

(in the plural, now rare) The leaves of this shrub, woven into a garland used to reward a champion or victor; hence, fame, victory.

(US, dialect) A tract covered with bay trees.

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).


bay

An opening in a wall, especially between two columns.

Wrex: And Shepard--I like what you've done with the Normandy. Got tired of always hanging around the cargo bay before.

2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.

2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

An internal recess; a compartment or area surrounded on three sides.

end bay

gondola bay

wall bay

A display unit in a shop or store, especially a large metal one

The distance between two supports in a vault or building with a pitched roof.

(nautical) Each of the spaces, port and starboard, between decks, forward of the bitts, in sailing warships.

There is a short bay at the west end of each platform, but neither is used for passenger trains.

1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 149:

просвет

From Middle English, from Old French baee, beee, from the verb beer (“gape open”), from Early Medieval Latin batāre. Compare Modern French baie. More at bevel, badinage.


bay

The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, / The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. / Uncouple here, and let us make a bay / And wake the Emperor and his lovely bride, / And rouse the Prince, and ring a hunter's peal, / That all the court may echo with the noise.

c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 2, scene 2, lines 1–6:

The excited howling of dogs when hunting or being attacked.

(by extension) The climactic confrontation between hunting-dogs and their prey.

Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay.

1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts.

1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

(figuratively) A state of being obliged to face an antagonist or a difficulty, when escape has become impossible.

From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form of baier, abaier.


bay

The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bay'd.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound of the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is lean with age.

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 92:

The scene was rocking, all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:

to bay the bear

Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set / The dogs o'th' street to bay me

a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 5, scene 5, lines 222–223:

(transitive) To bark at; hence, to follow with barking; to bring or drive to bay.

(transitive) To pursue noisily, like a pack of hounds.

en-verb

bay (third-person singular simple present bays, present participle baying, simple past and past participle bayed)

bays (present singular third-person)
baying (participle present)
bayed (participle past)
bayed (past)


bay

Mr. Free also owned restaurants and bred horses. His bay gelding, Packett's Landing, won almost $800,000 in his five-year career in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

2003 January 8, Stuart Lavietes, “F. William Free, 74, Ad Man Behind 'Fly Me'”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(especially of horses) Of a reddish-brown colour.

en-adj

bay (comparative bayer or more bay, superlative bayest or most bay)

bayer (comparative)
more bay (comparative)
bayest (superlative)
most bay (superlative)

From Middle English bay, bai, from Old French bai, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).


bay

bay:

A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.

[…] browns are the soberest, bays are the worst tempered, and chestnuts are the most foolish.

1877, George Nevile, Horses and Riding, page 105:

en-noun

bay (countable and uncountable, plural bays)