ryes

Noun

rye (countable and uncountable, plural ryes)

1. A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
   • They bought a sack of rye and a sack of wheat with the intent to try their hand at milling and baking.
2. The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
   • This field will be planted to rye next spring.
3. (Canada, US, countable) A drink (serving) of rye whiskey.
   • I'll have a rye, neat, please.
4. (broadly, proscribed, sometimes) Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
5. (broadly, proscribed, sometimes) Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
6. A disease of hawks.
   • And if it [vndeꝛ the peꝛch] be grene ſhe engenderith the Ry. The condicion of this euell is this, it wil ariſe in the hede and make the hede to ſwell, ⁊ the iyen all glaymous, and dyrke, and bot it haue helpe: it will downe in to the legges, and maake the legges to rancle, and if it goo fro the...1486, Juliana Berners, Book of Saint Albans

See all 22 meanings of rye