haye

plural hayes · alternative hayen · alternative hay

1. A shark (cartilaginous fish of Selachimorpha).

   They do not fling away the Hays in Spain, but sell them.

   1694, Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries, book 2, page 139

   5 more examples

   They have of Hayens or Tuberons which devour men, especially such as fish for Pearles.

   1613, Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage, page 504

   Other unlucky accidents oft-times happen in these seas, as, when (especially in becalmings) men swim in the bearing ocean, the greedy Hayen, called Tuberon or Shark, armed with a double row of venomous teeth, pursue them, directed by a little rhombus or musculus, variously streaked and coloured with blue and white, that scuds to and fro to bring the shark intelligence.

   1665, Sir Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile Begunne Anno 1626, into Afrique and the Greater Asia, page 6

   The Haye doth not spawn like other fishes, nor lay eggs (as the tortoise does), but casts its young in the manner of quadrupeds. [¶]These fish do no manner of damage on the whole Gold Coast; but as Fida and Ardra, where the slave-trade is managed, they are extraordinarily ravenous, and in my opinion fiercer than the most voracious animal in the world. […] [¶]When the Haye seizes his Prey, he is obliged to turn himself on his Back, because his mouth is placed far behind and low, wherefore he cannot come at any thing upwards. [¶]When we sometimes take one of these fish and haul him on board with a rope, we are always obliged to keep a distance; for besides his sharp teeth, he strikes with his tail, which is prodigiously strong, and whoever comes near him loses either an arm or a leg, or at least hath it broken to pieces.

   1705, an English translation of Letter XV of William Bosman’s 1704 Dutch Nauwkeurige Beschryving vande Guinese Gould- Tand- en Slave-kust (New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea), published in A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages, by John Pinkerton, in 1814; volume 16, pages 451

   There are in the Cape sea two sorts of Sharks. The Cape-Europeans call ‛em Hayes.

   1731, P. Kolben, translated by Guido Medley, Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, volume 2, page 193

   The Frozen Ocean, likewise, teems with the NARHWAL, the POTT-FISH, from whose brain spermaceti is prepared, the SEA-DOG, DOLPHIN, SEA-HOG, HAY-FISH, sea-cow, the sea-bear, the sealion […]

   1799, William Tooke, View of the Russian Empire During the Reign of Catherine II, volume 3, page 105

   Synonyms: hay-fish, shark

plural hayes

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of hay (“grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder”).

   […] and he toke the horse and the haye, and lept upon the horse and rode to the gentlemannys place […]

   1836, Samuel Astley Dunham, Lives of the most eminent literary and scientific men of Great Britain, Volume 1

   2 more examples

   14. In marg.—"Jo. Turner." For mowinge and wininge* the haye in Barkholme, xxxj⁸. For mowinge and wininge the haye in Brampton parke, xxxiij⁸. vjᵈ.

   1612—1640, Husbandry and Heardes, in the Household Books of the Lord William Howard, of Nanwoth Castle (published in 1878), page 324

   Iem, that hee take order with them for husbandlie usage of the haye, and apportionate the provender to be allowed to everye man's charge, according to the number of horses that are in house […]

   1806, Edmund Burke, Dodsley's annual register

plural Hayes

1. A surname.