ay — English Dictionary

Interjection

1. Ah! alas! Expressing anger, alarm, frustration, pain, etc.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   And ſuch as yet, coulde neuer weapon wꝛeſt, / But on the lappe are woont to dandled be, / Ne yet foꝛgotten had the mothers bꝛeſt, / How greekes them ſlew, alas here ſhall ye ſe, / To make repoꝛte therof, ay woe is me, / My ſong is miſchiefe, murder miſerye.

2. Expressing earnestness, surprise, wonder, etc.

   Usage

   • Northern-England
   • Scotland

   Examples

   Ay my word! I am glad to see you.

   More examples (1)

   Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.

   Ay! bonny little buttercup, what are ta dewin’ heear, / Hoddin’ up thi tiny heead, this raw, cowd time o’ t’year?

   More examples (3)

   “Ay, I’m glad he’s going to be mairrit,” he said a few minutes later as he sat in the manse kitchen.

   AY BY GUM. They’ve summat to put up wi’ hez t’ tram conductors, especially wheer t’ swells lives.

   Ay, lass, you’ve ruined your chances now. When you left for New York to become a Pan Am stewardess we thought you’d got it made.

3. Used in ay, ay.

Adverb

1. Always; ever; continually; for an indefinite time.

   Usage

   • Northern-England
   • Scotland
   • Archaic
   • not-comparable
   • Poetic

   Synonyms

   alwayscontinuallyforever

   Examples

   O he that hath ay lived free, …

Interjection

1. New Zealand spelling of eh (question tag).

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   For example, New Zealanders tended to say "ay" at the end of sentences, but in the Asian community people used different tags to check whether people were still listening.

Interjection

1. All right (inter); hooray (inter); cool (inter).