hay is for horses

alternative hey is for horses · alternative hay is for horses and cows · alternative hay is for horses, better for cows; pigs eat it too, but I don't know how

1. sarcasticSaid as a retort to someone saying hey (any sense of the interjection), used to indicate that the speaker disapproves of the usage of the word "hey", perhaps due to a dislike of informal speech.

   "Hey, do you remember this space toy?" "Hey is for horses."

   2024, Mark Sarvas, Memento Park, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Neverout. Hay, Madam, did you call me? / Miſs. Hay; why, Hay is for Horſes.

   1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue I”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page 107

   He called again: "Hey, Con?" "Hay is for horses, Homeboy," I shot back, and he laughed.

   2003, Kathryn Reiss, Paint by Magic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 124