fay
/feɪ/
fay verb: to fit, to add.
Verb (1)
fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)
- To fit, to add.
- 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.
- 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.Model Shipbuilders, 2010
- Synonyms:
- affix
- Of pieces of timber: to lie close together.
- To fadge.
Adjective (1)
fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)
- Fitted closely together.
- 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.US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006
Noun (1)
fay (plural fays)
- A fairy.
- that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- A Nimph is marryed to a Fay,
Great preparations for the Day,
All Rites of Nuptials they recite you,
To the Brydall and inuite you.1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses Elizium, Lately diſcouered, by a New Way over Parnassvs, London: Thomas Harper, page 67
- Synonyms:
- fairy
Adjective (2)
fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)
- Fairy-like.
Noun (2)
fay
- faith
- Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late. I'll to my rest.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- "Rash man," cried she, "how dost thou dare
To come disturb my waters fair!
"Thou shalt unto me plight thy fay,
Or seven years thou shalt waste away,
Or thou shalt die ere the third day."
"To thee my faith plight will I ne'er,
For I am married now a year."1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 434
Verb (2)
fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)
Noun (3)
fay (plural fays)
- A white person.
Adjective (3)
fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)
- White; white-skinned.
- 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.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
Proper noun capitalized: Fay
Fay
- An Anglo-Irish surname transferred from the nickname, Anglicized from de Fae a Norman family that settled in Ireland.
- A surname from Irish, anglicized from Ó Fiaich and Ó Fathaigh. (see Fahey.)
- A female given name, pet form of Faith or Frances; often used as a middle name.
- Fay Mortenson, 50, tells Them that she “dropped to the floor sobbing” after getting her 16-year-old son’s passport back with an “F” on it. When she saw in the State Department’s online database in February that the passport had been “approved,” Mortenson prayed that, for some reason, they had been...2025 March 3, Nico Lang, ““Simply Trying to Exist”: How Trans Americans Are Navigating the Confusion and Chaos of Trump’s Passport Policy”, in Them
- A commune in Orne department, Normandy, France.
- A commune in Sarthe department, Pays de la Loire, France.
- A commune in Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France.
- An unincorporated community in Ozark County, Missouri, United States.
- A census-designated place in Dewey County, Oklahoma, United States.
fay meaning in Urdu and Malayalam
fay in Urdu
- پری
fay in Malayalam
- യക്ഷി, മോഹിനി, വിദ്യാധരി, വിശ്വാസം
Synonyms of fay
Forms of fay
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | fays |
| present participle | faying |
| past participle | fayed |
| past | fayed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more fay |
| superlative | most fay |
| Noun | |
| plural | fays |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Faye |
Origin of fay
Inherited 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.
Inherited from Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fée (“fairy", "fae”), from Old French fae, from Medieval Latin fāda. More at fairy.
From Middle English fei, from Old French fei
Words formed from fay
Phrases with fay
Words that rhyme with fay
Questions about fay
- What does fay mean?
- Fay means to fit, to add.
- What is fay in Urdu?
- Fay in Urdu is پری. See Fay meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is fay?
- Fay can be a verb, an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fay?
- Fay is pronounced /feɪ/.
- What is the past tense of fay?
- The past tense of fay is fayed.
Words near fay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fay (page history and authors); Fay (page history and authors); fay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fay (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-fay.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.