Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A wharf or reinforced bank where ships are loaded or unloaded.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An obsolete or dialectal form of whey.
- n. A landing-place; a place where vessels are loaded and unloaded; a wharf: usually constructed of stone, but sometimes of wood, iron, etc., along a line of coast or a river-bank or round a harbor or dock.
- To furnish with a quay or quays.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.
- v. To land or tie up at a quay or similar structure, especially used in the phrase "quay up".
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A mole, bank, or wharf, formed toward the sea, or at the side of a harbor, river, or other navigable water, for convenience in loading and unloading vessels.
- v. To furnish with quays.
WordNet 3.0
- n. wharf usually built parallel to the shoreline
Etymologies
- From Old Northern French cai, from Old French chai (modern French: quai). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English keye, from Old North French cai, of Celtic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The rehabilitated timber deck of the quay is a generous public gathering place throughout the year.”
“The quay is enjoyable, as is the ride out to the islands, but you won’t be tempted to jump into the murky brown waters, and you’ll find the lake difficult to approach on foot, as it’s surrounded by wetlands.”
“Tied up at the quay were a couple of sleek black powerboats, and as Shelby saw them, she shot a worried glance at Laura.”
“He spoke never a word to the footman, who stood by the gate on the quay, which is always open by day.”
“The quay was a solid line of smart boutiques and casual but expensive restaurants; under the famous orange awning of Senequier, the beautiful people who sipped aperitifs were better dressed than the patrons of the Ritz bar in Paris.”
“The depth of water along the principal quay, which is being constructed of solid concrete, and is connected with the shore by an iron and steel viaduct over 750 ft. in length -- which is already completed -- will be 19 ft. at low water and 25 ft. at high.”
“The quay is a very broad one, by far the broadest in”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 85, January, 1875
“And once ... twice ... and again, the cannon on the quay are answering.”
“The incident of the beggar on the quay was another scar.”
“On the quay was a big notice: "All officers to report at once to the M.L.O.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quay’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
money cowrie, bedraggle, omphalos, ineluctable, postprandial, bladderwrack, modality barnacle..., loofah, shipworm, cither, embattle, Malachi and 503 more...
-
Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
-
The Request Line
This is the place to add words you'd like Charles Harrington Elster to pronounce for you!
swingeing, affiant, dahlia, hydrangea, re, clematis, Nabokov, casu marzu, schadenfreudgeon, nefarious, mewl, manteion and 170 more...
-
words that I don't even imagine the m...
abishag, bellibone, cattywampus, dike-jumper, eupeptic, frumious, gazabo, hackeneyed, iatronudic, kickshaw, linsey-woolsey, maelcryptovestime... and 10 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
-
Words
teeter, headlong, reprobate, canard, ersatz, prevaricate, trenchant, minatory, fatuous, stultify, vitiate, fulminate and 135 more...
-
new words!
errata, corrigenda, lacuna, inculcate, chiaroscuro, temerity, folderol, juggernaut, diadem, alacrity, exegesis, portmanteau and 97 more...
-
Pale Fire
Words gathered while reading Pale Fire.
larches, torquate, stillicide, vermiculate, preterist, theolatry, iridule, vulgarian, cloutish, lemniscate, torsion, trillium and 176 more...
-
vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
-
madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
-
#@$%*! (that's "grawlix" to you, bucko)
A list of words for images and ideas that normally defy words and/or drive you crazy trying to remember what they are called.
-
Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric
The ones with which I flavor my speech, and the ones I love to find peppered in literature.
perspicacious, acerbic, vituperation, loquacious, castigate, vitriolic, scintillating, provenance, frolic, attendant, pursuant, epistemology and 313 more...
-
My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
-
GRE 3500 Q
quadruped, quaff, quaint, quandary, quarry, quay, queasy, quell, querulous, quibble, quietude, quip and 89 more...
-
Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quay.
artoparts Visit Newquay. Jan 29, 2009