bay

BAY/beɪ/

Pluralbays

20 meanings of bay

1
inletnouncountable
A part of the sea or other large body of water set into a curving stretch of shoreline.
The fishing fleet sheltered in the bay during the storm.
A wide bay opened up as we rounded the headland.
UsageOften in place names with a capital: the Bay of Biscay, Hudson Bay. Boats shelter in the bay.
Similarinlet, cove, gulf, bight
2
compartmentnouncountable
A compartment, recess, or marked area set aside for a particular purpose, such as a loading bay, parking bay, engine bay, sick bay, or editing bay.
The fire engines waited in their bays, ready to roll out.
Workers stacked the crates in the loading bay.
Similarcompartment, recess, space
3
nounfigurativelyuncountable
The position of a hunted animal or person that is cornered and must turn to face its attackers, used especially in 'at bay' and 'keep at bay'.
The hunters brought the stag to bay at the river's edge.
Brought to bay by mounting debts, the company had no room left to maneuver.
UsageKeep something at bay means hold it off; stand at bay means be the cornered one.
Note
To stand at bay is to be the trapped one turning to fight, as in Dryden's Virgil: "Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay." To keep or hold something at bay is to be the defender holding the threat off, like Isaac Taylor's evils "just kept at bay by incessant efforts."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The quoted line occurs in John Dryden's translation of Virgil's Aeneid; the narrator describes the cornered Helenor. gutenberg.org
Isaac Taylor wrote the quoted words about evils being kept at bay. en.wiktionary.org
4
herb leafnoun
The bay laurel, an evergreen tree or shrub, or its aromatic leaves, used whole to flavor cooked dishes.
She tucked two bay leaves into the simmering broth.
A single bay leaf perfumes the whole pot of beans.
UsageMostly bay leaf or bay leaves.
5
window nooknouncountable
A window structure that projects outward from an exterior wall, forming a recess or alcove inside the room.
Light streamed through the curved panes of the bay and warmed the whole sitting room.
She read in the cushioned bay every afternoon.
UsageThe whole structure is most often called a bay window.
Similaralcove, recess
6
between pillarsnouncountable
A section of a building or vault between two columns, pillars, or other supports, or the opening framed between them.
The cathedral nave runs for ten bays before reaching the crossing.
Each bay of the nave, marked off by a pair of tall stone piers, is topped by its own ribbed vault.
Note
Here the bay is a span rather than a hole: the length from one support to the next, measured along a vault or a pitched roof. The same word also names the opening between the columns, since the gap and its width are one module seen two ways. Context tells you whether bay names the space or its measure.

Less common meanings

7
verbintransitive
To howl with a long, deep cry.
The pack bayed across the valley as the scent grew stronger.
Wolves bay through the cold nights to call the rest of the pack.
UsageOften bay at: dogs bay at the moon.
Similarhowl, bark, yowl
8
adjective
Reddish-brown in color; of a horse, having a reddish-brown or brown body with a black mane, tail, and lower legs.
A bay stallion led the parade through the village.
Her bay pony had a striking black mane.
Note
It belongs to horses above all, as in Stuart Lavietes's 2003 New York Times mention of "his bay gelding, Packett's Landing".
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Stuart Lavietes used the quoted expression in The New York Times in 2003. en.wiktionary.org
The quotation identifies the horse as a bay gelding named Packett's Landing. en.wiktionary.org
9
the horse itselfnouncountable or uncountable
A reddish-brown horse coat color with a black mane, tail, and lower legs, or a horse with this coloring.
The trainer led a sleek bay out of the stable.
Among the herd, a single bay stood out against the grays.
10
verbintransitive
Of people, especially crowds, to clamor angrily for something, often for someone to be punished.
Voters will bay for blood if the council pushes the tax hike through.
Protesters were baying for the mayor's resignation on the steps of City Hall.
UsageTakes for: baying for his resignation; set phrases baying for blood, a baying mob. Disapproving.
Similarclamor, howl
Note
The image is a pack of hounds closing on their quarry, carried over to people, so the crowd is heard as dogs at the kill, as in the hounds' howl.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The figurative sense likens people pursuing someone noisily to a pack of hunting hounds. en.wiktionary.org
11
hounds' crynouncountable
The deep, excited howling that dogs make while hunting or when cornered.
The hunters followed the bay of the pack through the woods.
A mournful bay echoed from the kennels at dusk.
Similarhowl, cry, bark
Note
Shakespeare pairs it with make in Titus Andronicus: "Uncouple here, and let us make a bay", loosing the hounds to raise their cry and wake the court.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Shakespeare uses make a bay in Titus Andronicus; Titus speaks the quoted words in Act 2, scene 2. folger.edu
The scene involves releasing the hounds and raising a hunting cry to wake the imperial court. folger.edu
12
bark atverbtransitive
To chase or hound someone or something noisily, as a pack of dogs does, often until the quarry is cornered.
The hounds bayed the boar through the thicket for nearly an hour.
Trained dogs bay the stag and hold it until the hunters arrive.
UsageFor noisy pursuit, use bay the stag. Bay at the stag focuses on the sound directed at it.
Similarhound
Note
The transitive bay makes the hunted creature its direct object: "to bay the bear", or Shakespeare's Cymbeline, where the speaker cries "set the dogs o'th' street to bay me". With the plain howling sense, the target usually takes a preposition, as when Dunsany's Time "shall bay hungrily at his masters".
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Shakespeare's Cymbeline contains the quoted words, spoken by Posthumus. folger.edu
Dunsany describes Time as baying hungrily at his masters. gutenberg.org
13
nouncountable
A unit of shelving or display equipment in a shop, especially a large metal one used to present goods.
The supermarket dedicated a whole bay to seasonal candy.
Before the store opened, staff restocked every bay in the cereal aisle.
Similarunit, rack, section
Note
Shop-floor vocabulary, and the word rarely travels alone. It usually takes a qualifier naming the kind of unit, as in end bay, gondola bay or wall bay.
14
victor's wreathnounarchaicplural
The leaves of the laurel, woven into a garland to reward a champion or victor; hence, fame or victory.
The patriot's honours and the poet's bays.
1771, John Trumbull, On the Vanity of Youthful Expectations
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, The Faerie Queene
Note
A poet's word for the prize itself, and usually a plural one: a victor wears the bays. Book IV of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596) sets a mere willow bough against the rival who "weares the bayes," and John Trumbull still writes of "the poet's bays" in 1771. Today the plural reads as archaic and is rare. It suits verse, or a deliberate echo of older writing, better than ordinary prose.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
Books I–III first appeared in 1590; Books IV–VI, including the quoted passage, first appeared in 1596. Specify Book IV to retain 1596. en.wikisource.org
The poem contrasts a willow bough with someone who 'weares the bayes'. en.wikisource.org
John Trumbull uses the exact phrase 'the poet's bays'. archive.org
15
damnouncountable
A bank or dam built to hold back water.
Similardam, dike, embankment, levee
16
laurel woodsnoundialectalUScountable
A tract of land covered with bay trees.
Hunters often lost their hounds in the dense bay beyond the cornfield.
Hunters knew the deer would bed down in the bay, where the bay trees grew so thick that little sunlight reached the ground.
Note
A regional American use in which the plant gives its name to the ground: a bay is a stand of bay trees, not a stretch of water. Most readers will first picture the coastal inlet, so this sense needs surrounding context in general writing. It belongs to dialect rather than standard speech.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
In a regional American sense, bay denotes land covered with bay trees. en.wiktionary.org
The land sense is classified as dialectal. en.wiktionary.org
17
mahoganynoununcountable
A variety of mahogany timber obtained from the Campeche region of Mexico.
Similarmahogany
18
berrynounobsolete
A berry; a small, fleshy fruit.
Note
The meaning the plant senses start from, now obsolete. The Old English word traced under the laurel tree simply meant "berry". In a modern sentence, bay used for a berry will read as a deliberate archaism or as a mistake, so it is best kept to historical writing.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
The plant senses derive from a word meaning berry. en.wiktionary.org
The berry meaning is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
The Old English element underlying the plant word meant berry. en.wiktionary.org
19
noun
A railway platform set into a recess at a station, served by a track that dead-ends, used by trains that terminate there.
20
noun
On a sailing warship, either of the spaces between decks, on the port and starboard sides, forward of the bitts.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of bay apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 15

The likely ultimate source is Iberian or Basque badia, which passed through Late Latin baia into French baie. The word partly took the place of native Old English byht, the source of bight.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

The likely ultimate source is Iberian or Basque badia, transmitted through Late Latin baia and French baie. en.wiktionary.org
Bay partly replaced native Old English byht, from which bight descends. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 4, 14, 16–18

The Old English word for a berry was beġ, found in the compound beġbēam ("berry-tree"). It developed into Middle English baye, which was later conflated with the Old French word baie, itself taken from Latin bāca, meaning "berry."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

Old English beġ meant "berry". en.wiktionary.org
Beġ occurs in beġbēam, literally "berry-tree". en.wiktionary.org
Old English beġ developed into Middle English baye. en.wiktionary.org
The inherited word was conflated with Old French baie. en.wiktionary.org
Old French baie derives from Latin bāca, meaning "berry". en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 2, 5–6, 13

Early Medieval Latin batāre led to the Old French verb beer ("gape open"), and from that verb came baee or beee, which passed into Middle English.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Early Medieval Latin batāre was the ancestor of Old French beer. en.wiktionary.org
Old French beer meant “gape open.” en.wiktionary.org
Old French baee or beee derived from beer. en.wiktionary.org
The Old French noun passed into Middle English. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 3, 7, 10–12

The word combines the Old French root *bai with an aphetized form of abay, meaning abay with its first letter dropped. It is a verbal form of the Old French verbs baier and abaier.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Bay derives from the reconstructed Old French root *bai combined with an aphetized form of abay, and is related to the verbs baier and abaier. en.wiktionary.org
The aphetized form of abay loses its initial a. en.wikipedia.org

Meanings 8–9

Latin badius ("reddish brown, chestnut") became Old French bai and then Middle English bay.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Latin badius meant reddish brown or chestnut. en.wiktionary.org
Old French bai derived from Latin badius. en.wiktionary.org
Middle English bay derived from Old French bai. en.wiktionary.org