fay

• enPR: fā, IPA^(key): /feɪ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: fey
• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English fēġan (“to join, unite”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōgijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōgijaną (“to join”), from *fōgō (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Saterland Frisian fougje (“to join, add”), West Frisian foegje (“to join, add”), Dutch voegen (“to add, place”), German Low German fögen (“to join, add”), German fügen (“to connect”), Old English fōn (“to catch”). More at fang.

fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)

1. (obsolete) To fit.
2. (shipbuilding, transitive) To join (pieces of timber) tightly. The long edges of the staves of a barrel have to be fayed so that when it is assembled it will not leak.
   • Model Shipbuilders, 2010:

     I have a strip cutter and I can cut the exact widths I need to fit, they are easy to fay together and attach very firmly to the bulkheads.

3. (shipbuilding, intransitive) Of pieces of timber: to lie close together.
4. (obsolete) To fadge.

• (to join or unite closely): affix, attach, put together; see also Thesaurus:join

• faying surface

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. Fitted closely together.
   • US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006:

     Under the four outer corners of the horizontal frame platform 22 are four tubular leg sleeves 23 that are fay together one at each outer corner.

From Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fée (“fairy", "fae”). More at fairy.

fay (plural fays)

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

     that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].

• See fairy

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. Fairy like.

• fey
• fae

From Middle English fegien, fæien (“to cleanse”), from Old Norse fægja (“to cleanse, polish”), from Proto-Germanic *fēgijaną (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōḱ-, *pēḱ- (“to clean, adorn”). Cognate with Swedish feja (“to sweep”), Danish feje (“to sweep”), German fegen (“to cleanse, scour, sweep”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, strike”). More at feague, fake, fair.

fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)

1. (dialectal) To cleanse; clean out.

Abbreviation of ofay.

fay (plural fays)

1. (US slang) A white person.

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. (US slang) White; white-skinned.
   • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62:

     I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.

• FYA, YAF

From Old English fāg.

fay

1. Alternative form of fou

From Old English fǣġe.

fay

1. Alternative form of fey (“marked for death”)

Cognate with Thai ไฟ (fai), Lao ໄຟ (fai).

fay

1. fire

Borrowed from French faille.

• IPA^(key): /faɪ/

fay (definite accusative fayı, plural faylar)

1. (geology) fault

   Kuzey Anadolu Fay Hattı dünyanın en tehlikeli faylarından biridir.

   The North Anatolian Fault Line is one of the most dangerous faults in the world.

• “fay”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu