Definitions

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

  • noun A chaise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See chay.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Prov. Eng. & Local, U.S. A chaise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A chaise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a carriage consisting of two wheels and a calash top; drawn by a single horse

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from chaise (taken as pl.)]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Corruption of chaise, originally from French.

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Examples

  • And the bad news for mr. shay is that his cherished "silent, white, anglo-saxon, christian majority" just MAY not be the majority any longer!

    News from Bizarro World David 2005

  • Oromocto, in shay and waggon, steam-boat and catamaran, on horseback or on foot, as best they can.

    Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick, North America Frederick 1845

  • I was crying when I got into the 'shay' -- that's what we used to call it -- and old John Mulbery that drove it, and was a good-natured fellow, bought me a handful of apples at the Golden Lion to cheer me up a bit; and he told me that there was a currant-cake, and tea, and pork-chops, waiting for me, all hot, in my aunt's room at the great house.

    Madam Crowl's Ghost and the Dead Sexton Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 1843

  • There will be ten representatives at the meeting, but print five additional copies just in case.fawran. hal hunaaka shay'un ` aakhar? faw-ran. hal hoo-nah-kah shay-oon ah-kar?

    Arabic for Dummies Bouchentouf, Amine 2006

  • Shaych, they called it now-from the Tayledras word shay'a'chern, though only a handful of people in all of Valdemar knew that.

    Magic's Price Lackey, Mercedes 1990

  • Shaych, they called it now-from the Tayledras word shay'a'chern, though only a handful of people in all of Valdemar knew that.

    Magic's Price Lackey, Mercedes 1990

  • "We believe that customer service shouldn't just be a department, it should be the entire company and ingrained in our culture," said Hsieh (pronounced "shay"), who sold Zappos. com to Amazon. com for $1.2 billion last year.

    Customer service is battleground in highly competitive market 2010

  • Her fore-legs were stiff and jointless, her hip-bones painfully prominent, her ribs sadly bare, and her nose hung dejectedly toward the ground; but she still possessed some mechanical power of locomotion, and the "shay" began to squeak and rattle in her wake.

    Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 Various

  • The only road, a faint track in the grass, now undiscernible in the gathering gloom, now on the slope of steep hills marked by deep gullies worn by the impetuous autumn rains, and down which the poor old "shay" jerked along in a series of bumps and jolts threatening to demolish at once that patriarchal vehicle and the bones of its occupants.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 Various

  • But never did bewildering _ignisfatuus_ retire more persistently from the pursuit of unwary traveller than did that Light-house from the occupants of that creaking "shay"; and it was not till total darkness had settled upon the earth that they reached its door, and discovered, by the lamplight streaming out, that Caleb stood in the entrance, awaiting their arrival.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 Various

Comments

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  • A light, covered, two-wheeled carriage holding two people and drawn by one horse. A shay was the American adaptation of the French chaise; also known as a whisky (not whiskey).

    October 22, 2008

  • Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,

    That was built in such a logical way

    It ran a hundred years to a day,

    And then of a sudden, it—ah, but stay,

    I 'll tell you what happened without delay,

    Scaring the parson into fits,

    Frightening people out of their wits,—

    Have you ever heard of that, I say?

    Seventeen hundred and fifty-five.

    - Oliver Wendell Holmes, 'The Deacon's Masterpiece'.

    September 15, 2009

  • A kind of 19th century whisky-a-go-go then?

    1755 what, Ollie?

    September 15, 2009

  • The year 1755. Continues:

    Georgius Secundus was then alive,—

    Snuffy old drone from the German hive.

    That was the year when Lisbon-town

    Saw the earth open and gulp her down,

    And Braddock's army was done so brown,

    Left without a scalp to its crown.

    September 15, 2009