john hay

noun

1. John Milton,1838–1905, U.S. statesman and author.
2. a river in NW Canada, flowing NE to the Great Slave Lake. 530 miles (853 km) long.

noun

1. 1. grass, clover, etc, cut and dried as fodder
   2. (in combination)a hayfield; a hayloft
2. hit the hay slang to go to bed
3. make hay of to throw into confusion
4. make hay while the sun shines to take full advantage of an opportunity
5. roll in the hay informal sexual intercourse or heavy petting

verb

6. to cut, dry, and store (grass, clover, etc) as fodder
7. (tr) to feed with hay

noun

1. a circular figure in country dancing
2. a former country dance in which the dancers wove in and out of a circle

noun

1. Will. 1888–1949, British music-hall comedian, who later starred in films, such as Oh, Mr Porter! (1937)

n.

“grass mown,” Old English heg (Anglian), hieg, hig (West Saxon) “grass cut or mown for fodder,” from Proto-Germanic *haujam (cf. Old Norse hey, Old Frisian ha, Middle Dutch hoy, German Heu, Gothic hawi “hay”), literally “that which is cut,” or “that which can be mowed,” from PIE *kau- “to hew, strike” (cf. Old English heawan “to cut;” see hew). Slang phrase hit the hay (pre-1880) was originally “to sleep in a barn;” hay in the general figurative sense of “bedding” (e.g. roll in the hay) is from 1903.

see hit the hay; make hay while the sun shines; roll in the hay; that ain’t hay.