Library / English Dictionary

BAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A horse of a moderate reddish-brown color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

Equus caballus; horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)

Derivation:

bay ((used of animals especially a horse) of a moderate reddish-brown color)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A small recess opening off a larger room

Synonyms:

alcove; bay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

niche; recess (an enclosure that is set back or indented)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bay"):

carrel; carrell; cubicle; stall (small individual study area in a library)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A compartment in an aircraft used for some specific purpose

Example:

he opened the bomb bay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

compartment (a partitioned section, chamber, or separate room within a larger enclosed area)

Holonyms ("bay" is a part of...):

aircraft (a vehicle that can fly)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A compartment on a ship between decks; often used as a hospital

Example:

they put him in the sick bay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

compartment (a partitioned section, chamber, or separate room within a larger enclosed area)

Holonyms ("bay" is a part of...):

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The sound of a hound on the scent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

cry (the characteristic utterance of an animal)

Derivation:

bay (bark with prolonged noises, of dogs)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An indentation of a shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf

Synonyms:

bay; embayment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bay"):

Guantanamo Bay (an inlet of the Caribbean Sea; a United States naval station was established on the bay in 1903)

bight (a broad bay formed by an indentation in the shoreline)

Instance hyponyms:

Korea Bay (an inlet of the Yellow Sea between the Liaodong Peninsula in China and western Korea)

Massachusetts Bay (an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean off of eastern Massachusetts extending from Cape Ann on the north to Cape Cod on the south)

Minamata Bay (a bay on the west coast of Kyushu; in the 1950s industrial wastes caused mercury poisoning among the Japanese people who ate fish from Minamata Bay)

Mobile Bay (a bay of the Gulf of Mexico; fed by the Mobile River)

Monterey Bay (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean in western California)

Moreton Bay (an arm of the Tasman Sea forming a bay to the east of Brisbane)

Narragansett Bay (a deep inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in Rhode Island)

New York Bay (a bay of the North Atlantic; fed by the Hudson River)

Osaka Bay (a bay of the western Pacific in southern Honshu)

Penobscot Bay (an inlet of the Atlantic in eastern Maine)

Prudhoe Bay (a bay on the northern coast of Alaska where oil was discovered in 1968)

San Diego Bay (a bay of the Pacific in southern California)

San Francisco Bay (a bay of the Pacific in western California)

Sea of Azof; Sea of Azoff; Sea of Azov (a bay of the Black Sea between Russia and the Ukraine)

Tampa Bay (an arm of the Gulf of Mexico in west central Florida)

Abukir; Abukir Bay (a bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt)

Andaman Sea (part of the Bay of Bengal to the west of the Malay Peninsula)

Bay of Bengal (an arm of the Indian Ocean to the east of India)

Bay of Biscay (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean in western Europe; bordered by the west coast of France and the north coast of Spain)

Bay of Fundy (a bay of the North Atlantic between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; noted for rapid tides as great as 70 feet)

Bay of Naples (an arm of the Tyrrhenian Sea at Naples)

Biscayne Bay (a narrow bay formed by an inlet from the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern Florida)

Bo Hai; Po Hai (an inlet of the Yellow Sea, on the coast of Eastern China)

Buzzards Bay (an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern Massachusetts)

Cape Cod Bay (the southern part of Massachusetts Bay)

Chesapeake Bay (a large inlet of the North Atlantic between Virginia and Maryland; fed by Susquehanna River)

Delaware Bay (an inlet of the North Atlantic; fed by the Delaware River)

Galveston Bay (an arm of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas to the south of Houston)

Galway Bay (a bay of the North Atlantic on the west coast of Ireland)

Hangzhou Bay (a bay formed by an inlet of the East China Sea)

James Bay (the southern extension of Hudson Bay in Canada between western Quebec and northeastern Ontario)

Holonyms ("bay" is a part of...):

sea (a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Small Mediterranean evergreen tree with small blackish berries and glossy aromatic leaves used for flavoring in cooking; also used by ancient Greeks to crown victors

Synonyms:

bay; bay laurel; bay tree; Laurus nobilis; true laurel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("bay" is a kind of...):

laurel (any of various aromatic trees of the laurel family)

Meronyms (parts of "bay"):

bay leaf (dried leaf of the bay laurel)

Holonyms ("bay" is a member of...):

genus Laurus; Laurus (small evergreen trees or shrubs with aromatic leaves)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used of animals especially a horse) of a moderate reddish-brown color

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

colored; colorful; coloured (having color or a certain color; sometimes used in combination)

Derivation:

bay (a horse of a moderate reddish-brown color)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bark with prolonged noises, of dogs

Synonyms:

bay; quest

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "bay" is one way to...):

bark (make barking sounds)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

bay (the sound of a hound on the scent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Utter in deep prolonged tones

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "bay" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

As I spoke a powerful bay horse swept out from the weighing enclosure and cantered past us, bearing on its back the well-known black and red of the Colonel.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So we shall, if we have not yet catch him and destroy him, drive him to bay in some place where the catching and the destroying shall be, in time, sure.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At one side of the fireplace was a heavy curtain which covered the bay window we had seen from outside.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I remember you very well: you used to give me a ride sometimes on Miss Georgiana's bay pony.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was early in the morning, but I didn't regret getting up to see it, for the bay was full of little boats, the shore so picturesque, and a rosy sky overhead.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The danger lay in the heavy fog which blanketed the bay, and of which, as a landsman, I had little apprehension.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Though January had already come, months would have to elapse before any trading schooner was even likely to put into the bay.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Fertilizer washed away by rain winds up in streams, rivers, bays and lakes, feeding algae that can grow out of control, blocking sunlight and killing plant and animal life below.

(Bacteria Used to Create Fertilizer Out of Thin Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Considering how much work is coming through your office, working out would be a perfect way to keep stress at bay.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Here and there a little group of shattered Indians marked where one of the anthropoids had turned to bay, and sold his life dearly.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)