Ay \Ay\, interj. Ah! alas! ``Ay me! I fondly dream `Had ye been there.''' --Milton.
Ay \Ay\, adv. Same as {Aye}. ※ ||
Aye \Aye\, Ay \Ay\, adv. [Perh. a modification of yea, or from the interjection of admiration or astonishment, OE. ei, ey, why, hey, ay, well, ah, ha. Cf. MHG. & G. ei, Dan. ej. Or perh. akin to aye ever.] Yes; yea; -- a word expressing assent, or an affirmative answer to a question. It is much used in viva voce voting in legislative bodies, etc.
Note: This word is written I in the early editions of Shakespeare and other old writers.
Aye \Aye\, Ay \Ay\, adv. [Icel. ei, ey; akin to AS. [=a], [=a]wa, always, Goth. aiws an age, Icel. [ae]fi, OHG, ?wa, L. aevum, Gr. ? an age, ?, ?, ever, always, G. je, Skr. ?va course. ?, ?. Cf. {Age}, v., {Either}, a., {Or}, conj.] Always; ever; continually; for an indefinite time.
For his mercies aye endure. --Milton.
{For aye}, {always}; forever; eternally.
To die, to sleep; "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, "Must give us pause.
On Wednesday, four top army officers accunvolvement in the drug trade were discharged. ay, a conservative political leader, said those dismissals mighriggered the coup attempt.
Mrs. Marcos, famous for singing to her guests at parties, joined in a duet of "Ako ay Pilipino (I am a Filipino)" with Imelda Papin, a popular Philippines singer who left the country after the Marcoses' ouster in 1986.
To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.
Todariots, and now ay, Salman Rushdie is in hiding, condemned by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel "The Satanic Verses."
"That is one ay to solve it and remove the fight from this treaty without coming to a final answer on the intepretation issue," said Lugar.