Fay
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fay¹
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English fēġan (“to join, unite”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōgijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōgijaną (“to join”), from *fōgō (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Saterland Frisian fougje (“to join, add”), West Frisian foegje (“to join, add”), Dutch voegen (“to add, place”), German Low German fögen (“to join, add”), German fügen (“to connect”), Old English fōn (“to catch”). More at fang.
verb fays · faying · fayed
- To fit, to add.
- To join (pieces of timber) tightly. The long edges of the staves of a barrel have to be fayed so that when it is assembled it will not leak. I have a strip cutter and I can cut the exact widths I need to fit, they are easy to fay together and attach very firmly to the bulkheads.
- Of pieces of timber: to lie close together.
- To fadge.
Similar: attach, put together
adjective more fay · most fay
- Fitted closely together. Under the four outer corners of the horizontal frame platform 22 are four tubular leg sleeves 23 that are fay together one at each outer corner.
fay²
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fée (“fairy", "fae”), from Old French fae, from Medieval Latin fāda. More at fairy.
noun fays
- A fairy. that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].
adjective more fay · most fay
- Fairy-like.
fay³
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
Where it comes from
From Middle English fei, from Old French fei
noun
- faith Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late. I'll to my rest.
fay⁴
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English feien (“to cleanse”), from Old Norse fægja (“to cleanse, polish”), from Proto-Germanic *fēgijaną (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōḱ-, *pēḱ- (“to clean, adorn”). Cognate with Swedish feja (“to sweep”), Danish feje (“to sweep”), German fegen (“to cleanse, scour, sweep”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, strike”). More at feague, fake, fair.
verb fays · faying · fayed
- To cleanse; clean out.
fay⁵
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
Where it comes from
Abbreviation of ofay.
noun fays
- A white person.
adjective more fay · most fay
- White; white-skinned. I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.
Fay⁶
- /feɪ/
Sounds like fey · Rhymes with -eɪ
proper noun Faye
- An Anglo-Irish surname transferred from the nickname, Anglicized from de Fae a Norman family that settled in Ireland.
- A surname from Irish, anglicized from Ó Fiaich and Ó Fathaigh. (see Fahey.)
- A female given name, pet form of Faith or Frances; often used as a middle name. Fay Mortenson, 50, tells Them that she “dropped to the floor sobbing” after getting her 16-year-old son’s passport back with an “F” on it. When she saw in the State Department’s online database in February that the passport had been “approved,” Mortenson prayed that, for some reason, they had been s
- A commune in Orne department, Normandy, France.
- A commune in Sarthe department, Pays de la Loire, France.
- A commune in Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France.
- An unincorporated community in Ozark County, Missouri, United States.
- A census-designated place in Dewey County, Oklahoma, United States.
