gay

comparative gayer · superlative gayest

1. Homosexual:
   1. Only possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself.First known use 1950

      Cliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight.

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      He was not happy at the farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup.

      1947, Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniqueshttp://books.google.com/books?id=vloZAAAAIAAJ, page 240

      She couldn't even gain access from a family friend whose name was on the list, nor could she use her feminine charms to turn on the staff member, who revealed he was gay and was more impressed seeing Billy and Chuck enter the building.

      2003, Michael McAvennie, The World Wrestling Entertainment Yearbook

      Of the dozen or so surviving articles, squibs, and letters to the editor, the most remarkable appeared in the Whip and Satirist’s February 12, 1842, issue, and disclosed the existence of a cabal of gay men in New York's otherwise wholesome nightscape of brothels and riots. Moreover it identified the spider who minced so delicately along the wide-flung strands of the sodomitical web. "There is not one so degraded as this Captain Collins, the King of the Sodomites." He was a foreigner, an Englishman, in the long tradition of blaming homosexuality on the influence of aliens. Among the syndicate of perverts, the writer announced, "we find no Americans as yet—they are all Englishmen or French" (the English called homosexuality the French vice and the French the English vice; for the Whip it was the French and English vice).

      2005, Mark Caldwell, New York Night, page 133

      The two failed attempts to receive the necessary access to medicalized transition procedures by the renowned FTM activist Lou Sullivan—a gay man who refused to comply with the imperative that transsexual men must desire women— […]

      2007, Kevin P. Murphy, Jason Ruiz, David Serlin, Queer Futures, Radical History Review (Duke University Press), page 58

      Her adoptive mother fainted when Gail told her she was gay.

      2009, Betty Jean Lifton, Lost & Found: the Adoption Experience, page 67

   2. strictlyOf a man, only romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men.

      gay and lesbian people

   3. broadlyTending to partner or mate with other individuals of the same sex.

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      In fact, as several letter writers to the New York Times pointed out in their response to the article, the disjuncture between these two popularized penguins shows how radically separated from each other are communities of gay people and communities of right-wing religious conservatives: if the Christian fundamentalists had looked up "gay penguins" or even "penguins" on the Internet, they would have encountered several gay penguin sites, including the story of Roy and Silo, the Central Park Zoo gay penguin couple about whom a children's book was written; the saga of the gay penguin community at a German zoo; and the campaign of Gay Penguin for President (whose slogan was "George W. Bush talks the talk, but Gay Penguin walks the walk.")

      2010, Noėl Sturgeon, Environmentalism in Popular Culture: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Politics of the Natural, page 128

   4. Between two or more persons perceived to be of the same sex or gender as each other.

      gay sex

      2 more examples

      Although the number of gay weddings has increased significantly, many gay and lesbian couples — like many straight couples — are not interested in getting married.

      gay marriage

   5. colloquialNot heterosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.

      Synonyms: queer

   6. Intended for gay people, especially gay men.

      She professes an undying love for gay bars and gay movies, and even admits to having watched gay porn.

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      Gays meet each other in special-interest social groups—gay softball leagues, gay bike clubs, gay gymnasia, gay activist political organizations, the Gay Academic Union (an organization for gay teachers, scholars and students), gay university student clubs and so on.

      1977, Charles Silverstein, Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 162

      He might well have suspected Cheek was a gay bar without seeing any of its patrons, simply because it was in a neighborhood where most of the bars were gay, and because you couldn't see in the windows.

      2003, Lawrence Block, Small Town, page 269

      Turn left into chilled-out Old Compton St and try to guess which bars are gay. Even the straight bars in Soho are quite gay, so it's often a bit hard to tell.

      2004, Martin Hughes, Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, London, page 208

      Again I was to masturbate into a cup and again the majority of the porn was gay.

      2010, Jay Mohr, No Wonder My Parents Drank: Tales from a Stand-Up Dad, page 252

   7. slangHomosexually in love with someone.

      […] the pirates, who are obviously totally gay for each other […]

      2014 December 6, Ej Dickson, “The 7 worst things about NBC's "Peter Pan Live!"”, in Salon.com

      2 more examples

      Being gay for Brad, even a teensy bit, is at the very least being able to imagine the potential for queerness. In a sense, like the recent popular and critical furor over men who are gay-for-pay, being gay for Brad is what Jeffrey Escoffier defines as "situational homosexuality," or other forms of man-on-man behavior […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad can easily be labeled as straight or gay, […]

      2014, Christopher Schaberg, Robert Bennett, Deconstructing Brad Pitt, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 211

      […] it’s now pretty popular among progressives to paint the US and Russian presidents as being gay for each other.

      2017 May 2, German Lopez, “Stephen Colbert tried to insult Donald Trump. He made a homophobic comment instead.”, in Vox

   8. humorousslangInfatuated with something, aligning with homosexual stereotypes.

      Vanilla straight guy here. […] Is it socially acceptable for me to good-naturedly say, "I'm totally gay for musical theater"?

      2014 December 31, Dan Savage, anonymous quotee, “Savage Love”, in The Stranger

   9. broadlyBeing in accordance with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.
   10. broadlyespecially a manExhibiting appearance or behavior that accords with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.

       This incident has become a source of much discussion, and the jury is still out on who is more gay: the guy who touched a dick or the guy who let a guy touch his dick.

       a. 2005, Jason Christopher Hartley, “October 23, 2004: This Is My Weapon, This Is My Gerber”, in Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq, HarperCollins, published 2005, →ISBN, page 25

2. derogatorypejorativeslangFlamboyant or effeminate in behavior.
3. derogatorypejorativeslangUsed to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid, burdensome, contemptible, generally bad.

   This game is gay; let’s play a different one.

   1 more example

   Dolph: "Oh, man! You kissed a girl!" Jimbo: "That is so gay!"

   1996, Lisa's Date With Density, The Simpsons (cartoon television series). Upon discovering Nelson kissing Lisa

   Synonyms: ghey

4. datedHappy, joyful, and lively.

   The Gay Science

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   Never was there a more copious Fancy or greater reach of Wit, than what appears in Dr. Donne; nothing can be more gallant or gentile than the poems of Mr. Waller; nothing more gay or ſprightly than thoſe of Sir John Suckling; and nothing fuller of Variety and Learning than Mr. Cowley’s.

   c. 1692, William Walch, preface to Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant, in John Dryden, The Fourth Part of Miſcellany Poems, Jacob Tonson (publisher, 1716), page 338

   Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

   The Gay Divorcee.

   1934, George Marion Jr. et al., (title)

   ’Tis fine to be a pretty girl, or just a gay and witty girl, And obviously to be both is rightly counted jam[.]

   1939 July 19, The Bulletin, Sydney, page 14, column 1

   To think that only yesterday / I was cheerful, bright and gay

   1972, Gilbert O'Sullivan, “Alone Again (Naturally)”, in Back to Front

5. datedQuick, fast.

   I went a gay shack, / For it started to rain.

   1873, Gwordie Greenup, Yance a Year, section 25

   4 more examples

   We launched our canoe and were off at a gay clip for Hackettstown, where Mart had a married sister, and we were figuring on big eats.

   1918, Hunter-trader-trapper, page 36

   My correspondent, who was riding in the first coach, comments that the small standard tender did not take kindly to this gay progress, and signified its disapproval from time to time by bombarding the train with lumps of coal!

   1954 July, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 488

   "[…] there is no one more competent to make it fly at a gay pace than myself. A prince of the royal blood couldn't go at a faster pace than I have been going during these last three weeks! Ha, ha, ha!" In a moment he was kneeling before the safe.

   2016, Laura Jean Libbey, Mischievous Maid Faynie, Library of Alexandria, →ISBN

   We shot along Sunset Boulevard at a gay pace, and squealed a turn down Vine Street with never a jitterbug pedestrian to make the driving interesting.

   2019, Lawrence Lariar, He Died Laughing, Open Road Media, →ISBN

6. datedFestive, bright, or colourful.

   Pennsylvania Dutch include the plain folk and the gay folk.

   4 more examples

   A Beavie of fair women, richly gay / In gems and wanton dress.

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Don we now our gay apparel.

   1881, J. P. McCaskey (editor), “Deck the Hall”, Franklin Square Song Collection, number 1, Harper & Brothers (New York), page 120

   1944, Ralph Blane, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Make the Yule-tide gay / From now on our troubles will be miles away

   Rhos station had been cleaned up for the occasion, and its single platform was gay with flags.

   1946 May and June, “Notes and News: Special Services for the Welsh National Eisteddfod”, in Railway Magazine, page 188

7. obsoleteFair, beautiful, pretty, bonny; elegant, fine.

   'I knowe wher is a gay castle, Is builded of lyme and stone; Within their is a gay ladie, Her lord is riden and gone.'

   1880-86 (recorded), “Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon (A)”, in Francis James Child, compiler, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, part 6, published 1889

   2 more examples

   Thy purse and eke thy gay guilt kniues, thy pincase gallant to the eie: No better wore the Burgesse wiues, and yet thou wouldst not loue me.

   1878 [1584], Clement Robinson, “A new Courtly Sonet, of the Lady Greensleeues” (stanza 7), in Edward Arber, editor, A Handful of Pleasant Delights

   THERE was a king of the north countree, […] And he had daughters one, two, three. […] To the eldest he gave a beaver hat, And the youngest she thought much of that. To the youngest he gave a gay gold chain, And the eldest she thought much of the same.

   1861 (recorded), “The Twa Sisters (R)”, in Francis James Child, compiler, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, part 1, published 1882

8. obsoleteSexually promiscuous (of any gender), (sometimes particularly) engaged in prostitution.

   She imprudently forms the acquaintance of a "gay girl" living in the same street.

   1898, John Mackinnon Robertson, G. Aston Singer, “The Social Evil Problem”, in The University magazine and free review: a monthly magazine, volume 9, page 308

   5 more examples

   As our heroes passed along the Strand, they were accosted by a hundred gay ladies, who asked them if they were good-natured. "Devil take me!" exclaimed Echo, "if I know which way my ship heads; but there is not a girl in the Strand that I would touch with my gloves on."

   1806 (edition of 1815), John Davis, The Post-Captain, page 150

   Prince Borghese was what is called a "gay, dissipated man"—that is to say, a powerful person leading a debauched and infamous life.

   1856, Bayle St. John, The Subalpine kingdom: or, Experiences and studies in Savoy, Piedmont, and Genoa, volume 2, page 158

   […] it is possible for people to be diseased without being prostitutes or gay women; it is possible for people years ago to have spent a gay life and to have not got rid of their disease, or they may have become diseased by their husbands or lovers.

   1879, Great Britain, Reports from committees, House of Commons, page 61

   Gay (common), loose, dissipated; a "gay woman" or "gay girl," a prostitute. "All gay," vide ALL GAY.

   1889, Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker's Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology, volume 1, page 399

   "As nothing could be more gay, i.e., debauched, than Zeno's court, so the ladies of gay disposition had great sway in it; particularly one, whose name was Fausta, who, though not extremely handsome, was by her wit and sprightliness very agreeable to the emperor.

   1899, Henry Fielding, edited by Edmund Gosse, The works of Henry Fielding with an introduction, volume 11, page 290

9. Upright or curved over the back.

   While the dog in concentrating at a given task, the tail is carried low and used for balance. In excitement it may rise level with the back. A “gay” tail is a fault.

   1997, Michael DeVine, Border Collies

   1 more example

   By now Nora had left my side and was grappling with Maisie, trying to hold her still long enough to examine her bit. “You haven’t trained her well,” she muttered to Eli. “Oh, she’s got a gay tail!” Eli laughed. “A gay tail? What does that mean?” “It curls upward.” Nona let Maisie go. “Still, you never intended her to be a show dog,” she added. brushing off her skirt as she made for the house.

   2000, David Leavitt, Martin Bauman; or, a Sure Thing

10. Northern EnglandScotlandobsoletepossiblyConsiderable, great, large in number, size, or degree. In this sense, also in the variant gey.

    There were a gay bit of lace on it.

    1881, Dixon, Craven Dales

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    As his reply was rather characteristic, I will give it : Many of them come a gay bit off.

    1832, George Pearson, Evenings by Eden-side: Or, Essays and Poems, page 67

    Thou 's wantin' a sweetheart? Thou 's had a gay few! An' thou 's cheatit them, […]

    1872, William Cullen Bryant, A Library of Poetry and Song, page 106

    A gay deal different to what I is noo.

    1876 (edition; original 1871), Richardson, Talk 1

    T'country-side was rid on him for a gay while.

    1881, Edwin Waugh, Tufts of Heather, I. 106

    "He has a gay bit of gumption in him, has Ray. It'll be no kitten play to catch hold on him, and they know that they do." The emphasis was accompanied by a lowered tone, and a sidelong motion of the head towards a doorway […]

    1895, Sir Hall Caine, The Shadow of a Crime: A Cumbrian Romance, page 131

plural gays

1. in pluralA homosexual, especially a male homosexual.

   [headline] N.Y. Gays: Will the Spark Die?

   1969, “N.Y. Gays: Will the Spark Die?”, in The Advocate

   4 more examples

   "Same-sex dancing, as we call it, is quite legal," a gay named Lew Todd, who was one of the spokesmen, spoke up.

   1974, Earl Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare

   Yet that does not mean that the issues, concerns and attitudes of gays and lesbians in the workplace are not important.

   2003, Marilyn J. Davidson, Sandra L. Fielden, Individual Diversity and Psychology in Organizations, page 73

   Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places.

   2004, Betty Berzon, Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships That Last, page 20

   On June 28, 1970, young gays in the city held a “Gay-in” in Golden Gate Park, and Gay Sunshine ran a photo of some of the participants in their inaugural issue […]

   2012, Todd J. Ormsbee, The Meaning of Gay, page 313

2. derogatoryinformalironicoftenGayness: the quality of being gay.

   Anti-gay persecution holds that you can pray the gay out of a person, or scare it out of them, or cajole it out of them.

3. dialectalobsoleteSomething which is bright or colorful, such as a picture or a flower.

   At a stall soon Mary bote / A hume-book full ov gays.

   1839, Charles Clark, John Noakes and Mary Styles, st. 157

   3 more examples

   I had no books to read, but plenty of gays to look at.

   1892, P. H. Emerson, A Son of the Fens, page 73

   ‘Can't you mow the aftermath in the churchyard before Sunday?’ ‘Not time enough, sir, but I'll cut off they gays.’

   1893, Cozens-Hardy, Broad Nrf., page 38

   There's a good child; look at the gays, and keep quiet.

   a. 1900, W. R. Eaton of Norfolk, quoted in 1900, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary

4. obsoleteAn ornament, a knick-knack.

   Look upon precepts in emblems, as they do to upon gays and pictures.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   If however the stranger be suspected of “sailing under false colours," when they are all in familiar chat about nothing in particular, “Cousin Jacky” will take occasion to say to the new chum, “My dear; ded 'e ever see a duck clunk a gay?" […] no more deceived by him than a duck can be made to clunk (swallow) a gay (fragment of broken crockery).

   1906, Cornish Notes & Queries: (first Series) (Cornish Telegraph, Peter Penn), page 132

present singular third person gays · participle present gaying · participle past gayed · past gayed

1. datedtransitiveuncommonTo make happy or cheerful.First known use since at least the 1920s

   SAYING GOOD-BYE (song) WE are always saying / "Good-bye, good-bye! / In work, in playing, / In gloom, in gaying […]

   1922, Thomas Hardy, Late lyrics and earlier: with many other verses, page 119

   1 more example

   Gaying Things Up For Christmas. JESSIE TODD, Laboratory School, University of Chicago. EVERY schoolroom in America is gayed up for Christmas.

   1952, American Childhood, volume 38, page 2

2. transitiveuncommonTo cause (something, e.g. AIDS) to be associated with homosexual people.First known use popularized in the 1990s

1. Northern EnglandScotlandConsiderably, very.

   When a fellah com' in 'at was gay free wid spendin.

   1886, Thomas Farrall, Betty Wilson's Cummerland Teals, section 42

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   And, tho' his guts ware lank and toom, / They're twice as big's this gay big room.

   1833, John Sim Sands, Poems on Various Subjects, page 115

   Now, to end my story, if o' t' village beauties wad git t' religion that good auld parson Jenkins recommends, it wad gay sharply mak' t' dirty women clean, […]

   1869, Joseph Carr, Sketches of village life, by “Eavesdropper”, page 60

   […] an' be t' Silver Cwove, an' than throo t' Pillar, an' a gay rough bit o' grund it is!

   1875, Dickinson, Cumbriana; Or, Fragments of Cumbrian Life, page 8

   She'll mak naw moor mischeef neets—she's gay quiet now!

   1892-3, Mrs. Humphry Ward, The History of David Grieve, volume I, page 19

plural gays

1. The letter —, which stands for the sound /ɡ/, in Pitman shorthand.

plural Gays

1. An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.
2. A unisex given name from English.
   1. A female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.
   2. A male given name from English.

      "Mr Gay Brawls. What a name." "It didn't use to mean what it means now. Plenty were named Gay. Even in Nevada. Was old Gay Pitch had a gas station in Winnemucca. Nobody thought nothin about it and he raised a railroad car of kids.

      2004, Annie Proulx, Bad Dirt, Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 32

   3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   4. A diminutive of the male given names Gaylord and Gabriel, and similar names

      - - - my father's father, Gaetano Talese (whose name I inherited after my birth in 1932, in the anglicized form "Gay"), was an atypically fearless traveler,

      1992, Gay Talese, Unto the Sons, Ballantine Books, published 1993, →ISBN, page 15