ay

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"The idea of asking you--ay, and expecting you--to take a fully-loaded slaver into port with only fourteen men to back you up, and no guns!

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. interjection Used before me to express distress or regret.
  2. noun Variant of aye1.
  3. adverb Variant of aye2.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Her father had loved her then--ay, and more deeply than she knew The chief thing which troubled Olive was the sight of the paper on which her father's dying hand had scrawled "Harold." —  Olive A Novel
  • And so he did--ay, and where he created, he loved. —  Olive A Novel
  • Perhaps--ay, and looking at him, the thought smote Olive with a great fear--perhaps to that awful question there was no answer in his soul John Dent passed him by, and came to the side of Olive Rothesay Miss, folk say you're a good woman. —  Olive A Novel
  • The attempt of one earnest mind to show unto many what humanity is--ay, and more, what humanity might become; to depict what is true in essence through imaginary forms; to teach, counsel, and warn, by means of the silent transcript of human life. —  Olive A Novel
  • No?--ay, then you know not love Sometimes I think love is the darkest mystery of life: mere desire will not explain it, nor will the passions or the affections. —  Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida Selected from the Works of Ouida
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

nang ·  ang ·  isang ·  naman ·  sila ·  bata ·  mga ·  ako ·  kasi ·  anak ·  niya ·  iyong

Used in the same contextWord Family

ay:   Ay
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also aye, eigh (and, in this use, eh), from Middle English ey, ei; a mere interjection, of no definite history, but it may be regarded, formally, as a variant of Middle English a, English ah, oh. In the poetical ay me, prob. in imitation of Old French aymi, Spanish ay de mí, Italian ahime; cf. French ahi, aï, Spanish ay, Italian ahi, ah: see ah, O, oh, and cf. eh.
 

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/ei/
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