hay

: herbage and especially grass mowed and cured for fodder.

If you say that someone is making hay or is making hay while the sun shines, you mean that they are taking advantage of a situation that is favorable to them while they have the chance to. We knew war was coming, and were determined to make hay while we could.

a large bundle or package prepared for shipping, storage, or sale, especially one tightly compressed and secured by wires, hoops, cords, or the like, and sometimes having a wrapping or covering: a bale of cotton; a bale of hay.

The noun hay refers to grass that has been cut and dried, usually for use as food for animals. As a verb, hay means to cut and store hay or to feed (animals) with hay. Hay is also a slang term for bed. (See the Idiom Alert below.) The exclamation hey is used to express surprise, delight, confusion, or anger.

Hay is grass which has been cut and dried so that it can be used to feed animals.

From Middle English hey, from Old English hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi, from Proto-Germanic *hawją (compare West Frisian hea, Dutch hooi, German Heu, Norwegian høy), from *hawwaną (“to hew, cut down”).

Uses of Hay Feeding hay to livestock is the number one use for hay. Almost any animal on the farm – horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. - will eat hay. Hay is usually fed to livestock when they cannot graze or be in a pasture, either because it is winter or because of drought.

1. : grass that has been cut and dried to be used as food for animals. a bale of hay.

The nutrition from hay is vital to keep the animal healthy, and to protect its digestive health. Poor quality hay could lead not only to digestive trouble, but also respiratory problems or toxic contamination.

Hay is a type of dried grass that's fed to certain farm animals. You might buy bags of hay to feed your pet rabbit, who likes to nibble on it. Hay is a mixture of grassy plants grown in fields, cut or mown, bundled in bales, and stored until ready to be fed to livestock.

Hay is not a single crop. It is cut from legumes such as clover, alfalfa, and soybeans and from grasses such as timothy, upland grasses, and midland grasses. Even cereals such as rye, oats, and barley may be cut and cured as hay. Some hayfields, such as alfalfa and red clover, produce two or more crops a year.

"grass mown," Old English heg (Anglian), hieg, hig (West Saxon) "grass cut or mown for fodder," from Proto-Germanic *haujam (source also of 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;" ...