Also 5–6 baye. [Partly a. OF. baye-r, more frequently occurring in the deriv. abayer (see Littré s.v. aboyer; cf. It. bajare, abbajare to bark) of uncertain origin; but influenced in later Eng. use by BAY sb.4, in phrases ‘at bay, to bay,’ so that the two notions were even more inextricably blended than in the sb.
(Diez’s reference of abayer to L. *ad-baubāre ‘to bark at’ is now rejected; recently it has been proposed to connect it with badāre, in which case both words would ultimately be from the same source.)]
1. To bark, properly applied to the deep voice of a large dog, as a hound or mastiff. Const. on, at (with indirect passive ‘to be bayed at’).
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1142. Braches bayed þerfore & breme noyse maked.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E viij. They houndes all Bayen and cryen.
1530. Palsgr., 442/2. This hounde bayeth at somwhat: ce chien aboye a quelque choses.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 30. The wakefull dogs did never cease to bay.
a. 1771. Gray, Poems (1775), 50. Hoarse he bays with hideous din.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, I. vi. They watch to hear the blood hound baying.
† b. (said of other animals.) Obs.
c. 1450. Holland, Houlat. Sum bird will bay at my beke, and sum will me byte.
2. fig. Applied (depreciatively) to the noise of human assailants.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeless, III. 235. And alle þe berdles burnes bayed on him euere.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., Pref. 18. Zoilvs crew, Who’le dayly at thee bay.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 99. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him?
3. trans. To bark at, to assail with barking.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., vii. The raches comun reuynyng him by And bayet him fulle boldely.
1596. Drayton, Leg., iii. 669. Some againe did bay me, As hungrie Wolves at Passengers doe howle.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 27. I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman.
c. 1806. H. K. White, Poet Wks. (1837), 255. The deep-mouth’d mastiff bays the troubled night.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life (1883), I. iv. 75. Sleepless youths who there melodiously bayed the moon in chorus.
b. fig. of persons.
1796–7. Coleridge, Poems (1862), 34. Though superstition and her wolfish brood Bay his mild radiance.
1839. Bailey, Festus, v. (1848), 36. Millions … bay a mind Which drives the darkness out of them, like hounds.
4. To give forth, utter, or express by baying.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, xliv. Cerberus, whose many mouthes doo bay And barke out flames.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxii. 279. These faithful servants generally bayed their full-mouth welcome from afar off.
5. To pursue with barking like a pack of hounds; to drive to bay with barking.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., IV. i. 118. In a wood of Creete they bayed the Beare With hounds of Sparta. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV, I. iii. 80. He leaves his backe vnarm’d, the French, and Welch Baying him at the heeles.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 17. The whole Herd making homewards so soon as ever the Doggs do Bay them.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., vii. (1879), 136. The jaguar is killed by the aid of dogs baying and driving him up a tree.
6. To bring to bay, hold at bay. (The notion of barking disappears.)
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 239. We tree and baye both Martern and wild Catte.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. i. 49. We are at the stake, And bayed about with many Enemies.
1713. Guardian, No. 125 (1756), II. 164. He taught to turn the hare, to bay the deer.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VI. 96. The men of Orleans, Long by their foemen bay’d.
