Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To join or fit closely or tightly.
- n. A fairy or an elf.
- n. Archaic Faith: "Sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late” ( Shakespeare).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To join; put together; fit together; frame.
- Specifically.
- To fit (two pieces of timber) together, so as to lie close and fair; fit.
- To put to; apply so as to touch or cover.
- To fit; suit; unite closely. Specifically
- In ship-building, to fit or lie close together, as two pieces of wood. Thus, a plank is said to fay to the timbers when there is no perceptible space between them.
- To suit the requirements of the case; be fit for the purpose; do.
- To cleanse; clean out, as a ditch.
- n. A fairy; an elf. See fairy.
- n. Synonyms Elf, etc. See fairy.
- n. Faith; fidelity; loyalty.
- About to die; fated; doomed; particularly, on the verge of a sudden or violent death.
- Dying; dead.
- n. A Middle English form of foe.
Wiktionary
- n. A fairy; an elf.
- v. dialectal To cleanse; clean out.
- n. US slang A white person.
- adj. US slang White.
- v. To fit.
- v. To join or unite closely or tightly.
- v. To lie close together.
- v. To fadge.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A fairy; an elf.
- n. obsolete Faith.
- v. (Shipbuilding) To fit; to join; to unite closely, as two pieces of wood, so as to make the surface fit together.
- v. (Shipbuilding) To lie close together; to fit; to fadge; -- often with
in ,into ,with , ortogether .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small being, human in form, playful and having magical powers
Etymologies
- Abbreviation of ofay. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English feien, from Old English fēgan; see pag- in Indo-European roots.Middle English faie, enchanted person or place, from Old French fae; see fairy.Middle English fai, from Anglo-Norman fei, fed; see faith. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Are you coming to the blue moon?" called the fay, and his voice whistled and shrewed to them like the voice of a wind.”
“The papers contained in the following colledion will, he is perfuaded, convince the public, that he has very much to fay, that is both ftriking and new.”
“The sharp reprimand was not lost upon her, and in time it came to pass that for "fay" she said "succeed"; that she no longer spoke of”
“The pradlice of flowing fo many miferable crea - tures in one bed is to be aboliihcd, and furcly upon the beft of principles, for no man who reafons for a moment can hefi - tate to fay which is preferable, to make a few happy, or to render many com - pletely wretched.”
Internet Archive: A journey through Spain in the years 1786 and 1787;
“Tiofe therefore that have obftrv'd the com - mon occafions of Duels, have not unfitly di - vided them between * Wine and Women j it being hard to fay which is the moft intoxi - cating and befotting.”
“Those fearless enforcers of the law will probably lead two deputies and fifty TV cameramen into some strip club and arrest a few dancers. fay perseo”
“We love them because all of us (my mom, husband, and I) can go and see what is on the agenda for the fay.”
“Thanks for ordering some savon here. ébouriffé (e) (ay-boor-ee-fay) adjective”
“I think she is afraid of dealing with the financial crisis that every state is facing at this time ... she's giving up rather then facing the people ... classy as usual. fay”
“McIDIOT complains that VIAGRA is not working uck fay ou tay”
Think Progress » McCain complains that the United States has yet to ‘pull the trigger’ on Iran.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fay’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Anglish
Words that can replace Latinates.
frosent, gainsay, fremd, inrush, frain, huru, wordbook, wordstock, byspel, elfshine, infaru, glam and 98 more...
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supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...ghost, boggle, bloody-bones, spirit, demon, ignis fatuus, brownie, bugbear, black dog, specter, shellycoat, scarecrow and 186 more...
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Scrabble Names
Given names that were acceptable for play the last time I checked the OWL.
kris, ray, barb, morris, kat, mark, maria, erica, marge, mason, hunter, hazel and 168 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 68 more...
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___ Rae
A friend of mine is changing her surname to Rae. She has a pleasant but unremarkable first name, and no middle name. So let's give her a memorable middle name. Come on Wordies, I know you can do it.
gamma, x, cosmic, sting, billy, more, death, hoo, tanker, norma, rae, sugar and 39 more...
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Anglo-Saxon/Old English
Anglo-Saxon rootwords
mote, huru, byspel, elfshine, infaru, snotor, dern, upspring, meed, lof, queem, hof and 83 more...
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Remember Not To Forget
Sephardic, Umwelt, amphiboly, untrammeled, sequela, pandiculation, tensegrity, syncretism, pugilism, shemagh, disquisition, perspicacity and 61 more...
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Wunderkammer
A not-so-secret cache of wonderfilled words; may be mythical, magical, philosophical, oddball or just plain cool
thaumazein, anacampserote, cledonism, mirabile dictu, limen, sough, amaranthine, anamorphosis, lyribliring, lubberland, luciferous, madstone and 31 more...
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fasten-ating
a reflection on the Indo-European root pag & pak to fasten
peace, pay, patio, fay, fang, impact, pax, newfangled, pagan, peasant, pectin, spinto and 58 more...
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The Devil and His Imps
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
devil, devilet, deviling, dablet, black angel, black man, black bear, black bull, black dog, bogle, bogie, boggard and 128 more...
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Eocene (Eosin) (Eoscene) (Eoseen) Eng...
Dawn Words in English
swefnum, swefna, secgan, goste, wealhstod, wald-swathu, hearpan, hwaet, leothcraeft, beorhtost, wyrd, dustsceawung and 131 more...
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dark and bright words of shine and fi...
scotophil, scotoma, scotia, shed, shadow, shade, scone, whiting, edelweiss, light, lightning, lucina and 349 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 317 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fay.
qroqqa Breathing hurts in weather that cold, but whatever the problems of being winterbound in the City they put up with them because it is worth anything to be on Lenox Avenue safe from fays and the things they think up;
—Toni Morrison, Jazz
short for 'ofay', US black slang for a white person, of much-guessed etymology Dec 19, 2008
fbharjo fay a little used (obsolete), but perhaps more appropriate word for faith: seems more a verb than a noun: was its usage diminished or lost during the enlightenment when we changed much into nouns from verbs: “Sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late�? (Shakespeare). Jan 15, 2007