GAY

cheery, gay, sunny

(adjective) bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer; “a cheery hello”; “a gay sunny room”; “a sunny smile”

brave, braw, gay

(adjective) brightly colored and showy; “girls decked out in brave new dresses”; “brave banners flying”; “‘braw’ is a Scottish word”; “a dress a bit too gay for her years”; “birds with gay plumage”

gay, queer, homophile

(adjective) homosexual or arousing homosexual desires

gay

(adjective) given to social pleasures often including dissipation; “led a gay Bohemian life”; “a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies”

gay, festal, festive, merry

(adjective) offering fun and gaiety; “a festive (or festal) occasion”; “gay and exciting night life”; “a merry evening”

gay, jocund, jolly, jovial, merry, mirthful

(adjective) full of or showing high-spirited merriment; “when hearts were young and gay”; “a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company”- Wordsworth; “the jolly crowd at the reunion”; “jolly old Saint Nick”; “a jovial old gentleman”; “have a merry Christmas”; “peals of merry laughter”; “a mirthful laugh”

homosexual, homophile, homo, gay

(noun) someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Proper noun

Gay

An English surname, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.

A female given name from English from the word gay, "joyful"; rare today.

A male given name from English. Also a shortened form of Gabriel, Gaylord and similar names, or transferred from the surname.

Anagrams

• YAG

Etymology 1

Adjective

gay (comparative gayer, superlative gayest)

(dated, possibly, archaic) Happy, joyful, and lively.

(dated) Quick, fast.

(dated, possibly, archaic) Festive, bright, or colourful.

(obsolete) Sexually promiscuous (of any gender), (sometimes particularly) engaged in prostitution.

Homosexual

(of a person or animal) Possessing sexual and/or emotional attraction towards members of the same sex.

(of an institution or group) Intended for gay people, especially gay men.

(slang, with for) Homosexually in love with someone.

(slang, with for) In love with something, usually as a homosexual.

In accordance with stereotypes of homosexual people

(loosely, of appearance or behavior) Being in accordance with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.

(loosely, of a person, especially a man) Exhibiting appearance or behavior that accords with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men.

A pejorative

(slang, pejorative, dated) Effeminate or flamboyant in behavior.

(slang, pejorative) Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid.

Synonym: ghey

(of a dog's tail) Upright or curved over the back.

(Scotland, Northern England, possibly, obsolete) Considerable, great, large in number, size, or degree.

Usage notes

• The predominant use of gay in recent decades has been in the sense homosexual, or in the pejorative sense. The earlier uses of festive, colorful and bright are still found, especially in literary contexts; however, this usage has fallen out of fashion and is now likely to be misunderstood by those who are unaware of it.

Gay is preferred to homosexual by many gay (homosexual) people as their own term for themselves. Some claim that homosexual is dated and evokes a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the mental health community, while others feel that the word homosexual(ity) does not express the emotional aspects of sexual orientation.

• In the broad political sense, gay usually refers to anything pertaining to same-sex relationships, whether male or female: gay rights and gay marriage. When used in coordination with other terms for sexual orientations, it usually specifically refers to men who are attracted only to men, and excludes lesbians, bisexuals and other orientations, as in phrases like lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB). Context is sometimes necessary to determine whether or not gay implies male in a given phrase.

• Since at least the 1950s, gay has sometimes been used as a broad umbrella term for all queer and gender-nonconforming (transgender and genderqueer/non-binary) people, similar to LGBTQ.

Noun

gay (plural gays)

(chiefly, in plural or attributive) A homosexual, especially a male homosexual; see also lesbian.

(dialectal, obsolete) Something which is bright or colorful, such as a picture or a flower.

(obsolete) An ornament, a knick-knack.

Usage notes

Gay may be regarded as offensive when used as a noun to refer to particular individuals.

Gay is sometimes used broadly/loosely to refer to anyone who is attracted to and/or sexually active with members of the same sex, even if their orientation is in fact e.g. bisexual.

Synonyms

see homosexual person and male homosexual

Verb

gay (third-person singular simple present gays, present participle gaying, simple past and past participle gayed)

(transitive, dated, uncommon) To make happy or cheerful. [since at least the 1920s]

(transitive, uncommon) To cause (something, e.g. AIDS) to be associated with homosexual people. [popularized in the 1990s]

Adverb

gay

(Scotland, Northern England, possibly, obsolete) Considerably, very.

Etymology 2

From Pitman kay, which it is derived from graphically, and the sound it represents. The traditional name gee was considered inappropriate, as the Pitman letter never has the sound of that name.

Noun

gay (plural gays)

The letter —, which stands for the sound /ɡ/, in Pitman shorthand.

Anagrams

• YAG

Source: Wiktionary


Gay, a. [Compar. Gayer; superl. Gayest.] Etym: [F. gai, perhaps fr. OHG. g swift, rapid, G. gÀh, jÀh, steep, hasty; or cf. OHG. w beatiful, good. Cf. Jay.]

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

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

3. Loose; dissipated; lewd. [Colloq.]

Syn.

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

Gay, n.

Definition: An ornament [Obs.] L'Estrange.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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