also 7 baye. [A word of doubtful standing and origin: it may be questioned whether senses 1 and 2 are really connected, and whether the word in the Promp. Parv. is not BAY sb.4, but sense 2 does not fall easily under any other of the words spelt bay. For the etymology, the ON. bág-r ‘opposition,’ has been compared, with its derived vb. bægja ‘to push back, hinder’; the latter might be the direct source of the related BAY v.4, if we could assume the sb. to have been taken from the vb. But if, as seems more likely, the vb. is from the sb., the origin of the latter has still to be discovered.]
† 1. ‘Obstacle.’ Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21. Bay, or withstondynge, obstaculum.
2. An embankment or dam to retain water, or divert its course into a mill stream, etc.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., IV. iv. (1588), 421. If any persons … have bene assembled … to cut downe any houses, Barnes, Milles, or Bayes.
1604. Fr. Bacon’s Proph., 507, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 286. The Ducke must have a Bay, the Hawke must have a stone.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Baye … is a pond head made vp of a great heith, to keep in a great quantitie or store of water.
1632. Sherwood, Bay of plankes, to breake the force of water, moile.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 126. A strong bay or dam crosses … [the brook], forcing the water into a pond for the cattle.
