Word.ws English Dictionary

hay is for horses

hay is for horses phrase: said as a retort to someone saying hey (any sense of the interjection), used to indicate that the speaker disapproves of the usage of the word "hey", perhaps due to a dislike of informal speech.

Phrase

hay is for horses

  1. (sarcastic) Said as a retort to someone saying hey (any sense of the interjection), used to indicate that the speaker disapproves of the usage of the word "hey", perhaps due to a dislike of informal speech.
    • Neverout. Hay, Madam, did you call me? / Miſs. Hay; why, Hay is for Horſes.1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue I”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738...
    • He called again: "Hey, Con?"
      "Hay is for horses, Homeboy," I shot back, and he laughed.2003, Kathryn Reiss, Paint by Magic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 124

Forms of hay is for horses

alternative formhey is for horses
alternative formhay is for horses and cows
alternative formhay is for horses, better for cows; pigs eat it too, but I don't know how

Origin of hay is for horses

From hay being homophonous with hey.

Questions about hay is for horses

What does hay is for horses mean?
Hay is for horses means said as a retort to someone saying hey (any sense of the interjection), used to indicate that the speaker disapproves of the usage of the word "hey", perhaps due to a dislike of informal speech.
What part of speech is hay is for horses?
Hay is for horses is a phrase.

Words near hay is for horses in the dictionary

  1. hay devils
  2. hay fever
  3. hay feverite
  4. hay feverites
  5. hay fevers
  6. hay is for horses
  7. hay is for horses and cows
  8. hay itch
  9. hay knife
  10. hay knives
  11. hay ko

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hay is for horses (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hay is for horses.wav.

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