ay

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

   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.

   1559, Lucius, Anneus, Seneca, translated by Iasper Heywood, “The Preface to the Tragedye”, in The Sixt Tragedie of the Most Graue and Prudent Author Lucius, Anneus, Seneca, Entituled Troas, […], London: […] Richard Tottyll, →OCLC, signature [A5], verso

2. Northern EnglandScotlandExpressing earnestness, surprise, wonder, etc.

   Ay my word! I am glad to see you.

   1863, Mrs. Toogood, Specimens of the Yorkshire Dialect; quoted in “Ay (ēⁱ), int.”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume I (A–B), London: Clarendon Press, 1884–1928, →OCLC, page 601, column 2

   5 more examples

   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.

   1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 137

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

   1888 December 9, Æthelbert [Binns], “Thoughts in Verse. On Finding a Buttercup.”, in The Keighley News, Keighley, West Yorkshire, published 16 March 1889, →OCLC, page 7, column 7

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

   1917 December 29, “Mary Maxwell; or, The Shadow on the Manse”, in The People’s Journal, Dundee, →OCLC, page 6, column 3

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

   1930 January 4, Northern Weekly Gazette, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, →OCLC, page 21, column 3

   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.

   2011, Cynthia B. Huntington, “Full Circle”, in Through Her Eyes: An Infidel’s Perspective […], [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 88

3. Used in ay, ay.

1. alternativeothersAlternative spelling of aye (“yes”).

   "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin; "thou seemest happy this merry morn." "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher; "and why should I not be so?[…]"

   1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood Turns Butcher”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part second, page 48

   1 more example

   I swear also that I will honour and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very end, come it soon or late.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 284

plural ays

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of aye (“yes”).

   counting the ays and the noes in a vote

alternative archaic aye

1. Northern EnglandScotlandarchaicnot comparablepoeticAlways; ever; continually; for an indefinite time (alternative or modern spelling of aye).

   O he that hath ay lived free, …

   1670, John Barbour, The Acts and Life of the most victorious Conquerour Robert Bruce King of Scotland, as cited in 1860, Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-poetica, page 160

   Synonyms: always, continually, forever

plural ays

1. alternativeAlternative form of a: the name of the Latin script letter A/a.

   ETA [is spoken] as "ee-tee-ay" instead of "I SPELL Echo Tango Alfa".

   2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5

   1 more example

   It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."

   2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170

alternative aye

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

   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.

   2013 November 13, “Surprising changes in the way Aucklanders speak”, in Stuff

alternative ey · alternative eyy

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

   Synonyms: yay

plural AYs

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of academic year.