GAY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Gay

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adjective

Gay adj. (compar. gayer; superl. gayest)

Excited with merriment; manifesting sportiveness or delight; inspiring delight; livery; merry. "Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay." "Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed."

Brilliant in colors; splendid; fine; richly dressed. "Why is my neighbor's wife so gay?" "A bevy of fair women, richly gay In gems and wanton dress!"

Loose; dissipated; lewd. (Colloq.)

Synonyms: Merry; gleeful; blithe; airy; lively; sprightly, sportive; light-hearted; frolicsome; jolly; jovial; joyous; joyful; glad; showy; splendid; vivacious.

noun

Gay n. An ornament (Obs.)

See images of 'Gay'

Etymology of 'Gay'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gay" Quotes from Famous Books

... Caliph's couch, began to converse with him; all this happening whilst Abu al-Hasan and Ali bin Bakkar looked on and listened, unseen of the King. Presently the Caliph fell to jesting and toying with Shams al-Nahar and both were in the highest spirits, glad and gay, when he bade them throw open the garden pavilion. So they opened the doors and windows and lighted the tapers till the place shone in the season of darkness even as the day. Then the eunuchs removed thither ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... me how? What have I done? What have I said? You Romans are certainly the most extraordinary people. It is impossible to please you. If one laughs, you become tragic. If one is serious, you grow gay! I ...

— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford

... this, she arose, the silent and rebuked Mrs. Andrews, whose own picture had been drawn, following her down to the gay drawing rooms. ...

— Home Lights and Shadows • T. S. Arthur

... that Lota would quite have forgotten him had it not been for these letters which came regularly every month. The paper on which they were written had an odd, pleasant smell. Nurse said it was the smell of sandal-wood. Sometimes there were things inside for Lota, bird's feathers of gay colors, Chinese puzzles of carved ivory, or small pictures painted on rice paper. Lota liked these things very much. It was like playing at a Papa rather than really having one, but she enjoyed the play; ...

— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge

... was a lady's house. I guess Jeff has a pootty good time, and a time 't suits him. He shows up on the coachin' parties, and he's got himself a reg'lar English coachman's rig, with boots outside his trouse's, and a long coat and a fuzzy plug-hat: I tell you, he looks gay! He don't spend his winters at Lion's Head: he is off to Europe about as soon as the house closes in the fall, and he keeps bringin' home new dodges. Guess you couldn't get no boa'd there for no seven dollars a week now! I tell you, Jeff's the gentleman now, and his wife's about the ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

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