Word: Hay

Pronunciation

/heɪ/

Definitions

• Noun: Dried grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants, typically cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder. For example: “The farmer stacked bales of hay in the barn.”

  • As a mass noun: The act of making or harvesting hay. Example: “We spent the day putting up hay.”
  • Metaphorical usage: Something that is easy or simple to accomplish; something considered unimportant or trifling. Example: “That’s small potatoes; it’s just hay compared to the real work.”

• Verb: (transitive) To cut, dry, and store (grass or other plants) as hay. Example: “They will hay the fields this week.”

  • Intransitive (chiefly US): To make hay while the sun shines, meaning to take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself. Example: “Now’s our chance to buy the property; we should hay while the sun shines.”

Phrases

• “Make hay while the sun shines”: This idiomatic expression means to act quickly and take advantage of an opportunity before it passes.
• “Hay is for horses”: A humorous retort to suggest that what one has said or suggested is not applicable or appropriate.

Example Sentences

• Noun: “The horse eagerly munched on the fresh hay in its stall.”
• Verb: “Farmers worked tirelessly to hay their fields before the rain arrived.”

Synonyms

• Fodder
• Feed
• Straw (though straw usually refers to the dried stalks of cereal crops after the grain has been removed)
• Forage (referring to any plant material eaten by grazing livestock or harvested for feeding)

In the context of the verb ‘to hay’:

• Harvest
• Gather
• Cut and dry (plants) for fodder