fay

present singular third person fays · participle present faying · participle past fayed · past fayed

1. obsoleteTo fit, to add.
2. transitivebusinessTo 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.

   Model Shipbuilders, 2010

   Synonyms: affix

3. intransitivebusinessOf pieces of timber: to lie close together.
4. obsoleteTo fadge.

comparative more fay · superlative most fay

1. 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.

   US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006

plural fays

1. A fairy.

   that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   A Nimph is marryed to a Fay, Great preparations for the Day, All Rites of Nuptials they recite you, To the Brydall and inuite you.

   1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses Elizium, Lately diſcouered, by a New Way over Parnassvs, London: Thomas Harper, page 67

   Which is sixteen leagues long, but is so full of Fairie and strange things that few people pass there without being lost or stopt, because therewithin dwelleth a king, Oberon the Fay.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 61

   Synonyms: fairy

comparative more fay · superlative most fay

1. Fairy-like.

1. obsoletefaith

   Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late. I'll to my rest.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

   1 more example

   "Rash man," cried she, "how dost thou dare To come disturb my waters fair! "Thou shalt unto me plight thy fay, Or seven years thou shalt waste away, Or thou shalt die ere the third day." "To thee my faith plight will I ne'er, For I am married now a year."

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 434

present singular third person fays · participle present faying · participle past fayed · past fayed

1. dialectalTo cleanse; clean out.

plural fays

1. USslangA white person.

comparative more fay · superlative most fay

1. USslangWhite; 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.

   1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62

alternative Faye

1. An Anglo-Irish surname transferred from the nickname, Anglicized from de Fae a Norman family that settled in Ireland.
2. A surname from Irish, anglicized from Ó Fiaich and Ó Fathaigh. (see Fahey.)
3. A female given name, pet form of Faith or Frances; often used as a middle name.

   1 more example

   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 spared the agonies others were suffering.

   2025 March 3, Nico Lang, ““Simply Trying to Exist”: How Trans Americans Are Navigating the Confusion and Chaos of Trump’s Passport Policy”, in Them

4. A place name:
   1. A commune in Orne department, Normandy, France.
   2. A commune in Sarthe department, Pays de la Loire, France.
   3. A commune in Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France.
   4. An unincorporated community in Ozark County, Missouri, United States.
   5. A census-designated place in Dewey County, Oklahoma, United States.