Word.ws English Dictionary

made hay while the sun shone

made hay while the sun shone is the simple past and past participle of make hay while the sun shines.

Meaning of make hay while the sun shines

Verb

make hay while the sun shines (third-person singular simple present makes hay while the sun shines, present participle making hay while the sun shines, simple past and past participle made hay while the sun shone)

  1. (idiomatic) To act while an opportunity exists; to take action while a situation is favorable.
    • Near-synonym: grasp the nettle
  2. (literal) To make hay during favourable (dry) weather.

Questions about made hay while the sun shone

What is made hay while the sun shone the simple past and past participle of?
Made hay while the sun shone is the simple past and past participle of make hay while the sun shines.

Words near made hay while the sun shone in the dictionary

  1. made happen
  2. made hard work of
  3. made haste
  4. made haste slowly
  5. made hay
  6. made hay while the sun shone
  7. made head against
  8. made head or tail of
  9. made headway
  10. made heavy going of
  11. made heavy weather

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: made hay while the sun shone (page history and authors); make hay while the sun shines (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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