hoy

plural hoys

1. nauticalA small coaster vessel, usually sloop-rigged, used in conveying passengers and goods, or as a tender to larger vessels in port.

   Per packet per Hoy.

   1590 May 31, George Carew, letter to William Cecil

   5 more examples

   He sent to Germanie, straunge aid to reare, From whence eftsoones arriued here three hoyes Of Saxons, whom he for his safetie imployes.

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

   The hoy went to London every week.

   1779 July, William Cowper, letter to the Rev. William Unwin

   The out-fit is not a trifle: no lady can be landed there, under respectable circumstances throughout, for less than five hundred pounds... [Visiting India] is not like a trip, per hoy, to Margate, where nothing but a well-lined purse is requisite...

   1810, Thomas Williamson, The East India Vade-Mecum, pages 453-454

   Oh, sea-sickness! thou cream of miseries—thou ocean-purgatory!... how presumptuous would it be in me to essay a description of thee, when so many better qualified have failed in the attempt, from the early voyager per hoy to Margate and Ramsgate, to the bolder spirits of more recent times, who, leaving the pleasant sounds of Bow bells, recklessly brave the dangers of a transit to Calais and Boulogne!

   1840 November, Francis John Bellew, The Asiatic Journal..., New Series, Vol. XXXIII, No. 131, p. 198

   Alderman Johnson condemns the Reform Act, and is for going backward, in all things, to the good times. Punch humbly suggests that every man who votes for the Crab Alderman should be punished as follows:— The said voter never to be permitted to travel by rail, but to journey to York or elsewhere by the very slowest coach. Never to go to Margate by steamboat, but to take three days to the voyage, per hoy. Never to send a letter by penny-post, but to pay 10d. or 13d., as the case may be—the good old price of the good old times.

   1847, “Vote for Alderman Johnson”, in Punch, volume XIII, page 40

alternative hoi

1. Hey! ho!, hallo!, stop!

present singular third person hoys · participle present hoying · participle past hoyed · past hoyed

1. transitiveTo incite; to drive onward.

present singular third person hoys · participle present hoying · participle present hoyin · participle past hoyed · past hoyed

1. AustraliaNorthumbriaTo throw.

   They grab his duds and his picks as well. They hoy him down to the pit of hell. Down you go and fare ye well. You dirty blackleg miner.

   1970 June 28, traditional, “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait, performed by Steeleye Span

   Synonyms: fling, hurl, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash

plural Hoys

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States.

1. An island in south-west Orkney Islands council area, Scotland (OS grid refs HY20, ND29).
2. A small uninhabited island of the Shetland Islands council area, Scotland (OS grid ref HU3744).

plural HOYs

1. abbreviationinitialismeducationInitialism of head of year.