bay

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A deep, prolonged bark, such as the sound made by hounds.
• noun The position of one cornered by pursuers and forced to turn and fight at close quarters.
• noun The position of having been checked or held at a distance.
• intransitive verb To utter a deep, prolonged bark.
• intransitive verb To pursue or challenge with barking.
• intransitive verb To express by barking or howling.
• intransitive verb To bring to bay.
• adjective Reddish-brown.
• noun A reddish brown.
• noun A reddish-brown animal, especially a horse having a black mane and tail.
• noun Architecture A part of a building marked off by vertical elements, such as columns or pilasters.
• noun A bay window.
• noun An opening or recess in a wall.
• noun A section or compartment, as in a service station, barn, or aircraft, that is set off for a specific purpose.
• noun A sickbay.
• noun Computers A drive bay.
• noun A body of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to the sea.
• noun An area of land, such as an arm of prairie partially enclosed by woodland, that resembles in shape or formation a partially enclosed body of water.
• noun Any of certain other trees or shrubs with aromatic foliage, such as the California laurel.
• noun A crown or wreath made especially of the leaves and branches of the laurel and given as a sign of honor or victory.
• noun Honor; renown.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A berry, especially of the laurel-tree.
• noun The laurel-tree, noble laurel, or sweet-bay, Laurus nobilis. See laurel.
• noun Hence (like laurel, and in reference to the ancient use of the laurel)
• noun An honorary garland or crown bestowed as a prize for victory or excellence; also, fame or renown due to achievement or merit: in this sense used chiefly in the plural, with reference to the leaves or branches of laurel. Also called bay-leaf.
• noun [In the following quotation, the office of poet laureate: formerly a not uncommon use.
• noun Bays was sometimes used as a singular (compare bays, baize, as singular).
• noun [Cf. bay.] A piece of low, marshy ground producing large numbers of bay-trees.
• noun A recess in the shore of a sea or lake, differing from a creek in being less long and narrow; the expanse of water between two capes or headlands.
• noun An anchorage or roadstead for ships; a port; a harbor.
• noun A recess of land, as in a range of hills; a level space partly surrounded by heights.
• noun An arm of a prairie extending into woods and partly surrounded by them. [U. S.] Bartlett.
• noun A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeachy Bay (whence the name).
• To open the mouth, as for food; seek with open mouth.
• To bark, as a dog; especially, to bark with a deep prolonged sound, as hounds in the chase.
• To bark at; beset with deep prolonged barking.
• To express by barking.
• To drive or pursue so as to compel to stand at bay; chase or hunt.
• To hold at bay.
• noun A principal compartment or division in the architectural arrangement of a building, marked by buttresses or pilasters on the walls, by the disposition of the main ribs (arcs doubleaux) of the interior vaulting, by the placing of the main arches and pillars or of the principals of the roof, or by any other leading features that separate the design into corresponding parts.
• noun The part of a window included between two mullions; a light. Also called window-bay.
• noun A bay-window.
• noun A compartment in a barn for the storage of hay or grain.
• noun In carpentry, a portion of a compound or framed floor included between two girders, or between a girder and the wall.
• noun In plastering, the space between two screeds. See screed.
• noun Nautical, that part of a ship between decks which lies forward of the bitts, on either side; in a ship of war, the foremost messing-place between decks. See sick-bay.
• noun In bridge-building, the portion between two piers.
• noun In coal-mining: An open space for the gob or waste in a long-wall working.