bay

Etymology 1

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).

noun

1. (obsolete) A berry.
2. Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.
3. Bay leaf, the leaf of this or certain other species of tree or shrub, used as a herb.
4. (in the plural, now rare) The leaves of this shrub, woven into a garland used to reward a champion or victor; hence, fame, victory.
   The patriot's honours and the poet's bays. 1771, John Trumbull, On the Vanity of Youthful Expectations
5. (US, dialect) A tract covered with bay trees.
6. A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeche in Mexico.

Etymology 2

From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian or Basque badia. Displaced native Old English byht.

noun

1. (geography) A body of water (especially the sea) more-or-less three-quarters surrounded by land.
   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. A bank or dam to keep back water.

Etymology 3

From Middle English, from Old French baee, beee, from the verb beer (“gape open”), from Early Medieval Latin batāre. Compare Modern French baie. More at bevel, badinage.

noun

1. An opening in a wall, especially between two columns.
2. An internal recess; a compartment or area surrounded on three sides.
   Wrex: And Shepard--I like what you've done with the Normandy. Got tired of always hanging around the cargo bay before. 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
   A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. 2013-06-01, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
3. The distance between two supports in a vault or building with a pitched roof.
4. (nautical) Each of the spaces, port and starboard, between decks, forward of the bitts, in sailing warships.
5. (rail transport) A bay platform.
   There is a short bay at the west end of each platform, but neither is used for passenger trains. 1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 149
6. A bay window.

Etymology 4

From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form of baier, abaier.

noun

1. The excited howling of dogs when hunting or being attacked.
   The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, / The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. / Uncouple here, and let us make a bay / And wake the Emperor and his lovely bride, / And rouse the Prince, and ring a hunter's peal, / That all the court may echo with the noise. c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 2, scene 2, lines 1–6
2. (by extension) The climactic confrontation between hunting-dogs and their prey.
3. (figurative) A state of being obliged to face an antagonist or a difficulty, when escape has become impossible.

verb

1. (intransitive) To howl.
2. (transitive) To bark at; hence, to follow with barking; to bring or drive to bay.
   to bay the bear
   Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set / The dogs o'th' street to bay me a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 5, scene 5, lines 222–223
3. (transitive) To pursue noisily, like a pack of hounds.

Etymology 5

From Middle English bay, bai, from Old French bai, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

adj

1. Of a reddish-brown colour (especially of horses).

noun

1. A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.
   bay:
2. A horse of this color.
   […] browns are the soberest, bays are the worst tempered, and chestnuts are the most foolish. 1877, George Nevile, Horses and Riding, page 105