bays

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bay.

   The rugged coastline is dotted with sheltered bays and hidden coves.

   Mechanics worked side by side in the garage's three service bays.

   Note

   One spelling gathers several unrelated nouns: inlets of the sea, banks that hold back water, bay trees, bay leaves, and a mahogany from Campeche. One use lives almost wholly in the plural. In archaic English, the bays are the laurel garland given to a champion, and so victory or fame itself. To win the bays was to win renown, and only context separates the garland from the coastline.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of bay.

   The hound bays loudly the moment it catches a fresh scent.

   Each time the train rumbles past, the farm dog bays at the noise.

   Note

   The hound's verb, in the form that follows he, she or it. It works two ways. Intransitively, a dog simply bays, howling. Transitively, it bays something: it barks at a quarry, pursues it noisily the way a pack does, or drives it to bay. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, so the subject and its verb ending are what mark this as the animal's cry.

3. 3
   nounobsoleteuncountable

   A coarse woolen fabric, typically dyed green, used as a covering for tables, doors, and similar surfaces.

   Much like the felt that covers a billiards or card table today.

   The gaming table was draped in green bays, worn thin along the edges.

   The tailor kept a bolt of bays on hand for lining heavy winter coats.

   Note

   The cloth's name was once a color: French baies, the feminine plural of bai, "reddish-brown." That plural origin explains why the old spelling looks like a plural, even though the word is a mass noun. You would say some bays, never a bays. The form is obsolete, and baize is the word to use today. Keep bays for quoting or deliberately echoing older English.

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