in geography, an arm of the sea shooting up into the land, and terminating in a nook. It is a kind of lesser gulf, bigger than a creek, and is larger in its middle within than at its entrance. The largest and most noted bays in the world are those of Biscay, Bengal, Hudson's, Panama, &c.

Bay, among farmers, a term used to signify the magnitude of a barn; as, if a barn consists of a floor and two heads, where they lay corn, they call it a barn of two bays. The bays are from fourteen to twenty feet long.

Bay denotes likewise a pound head, used to keep in store of water for driving the wheels of the furnace or hammer belonging to an iron-mill, by the stream that comes thence through a flood-gate, called the pen-stock.

Bay is also one of the colours of the hair of horses, inclining to red, and coming pretty near the colour of a chestnut. There are five different gradations of the bay-colour, viz. chestnut-bay, light-bay, yellow-bay, or dun-bay, bloody-bay, which is also called scarlet-bay, and the brown-bay.

Bay, among huntmen. Deer are said to stand at bay, when, after being hard run, they turn head against the hounds.

Bay-tree. See Laurus.

Bay-salt. See Salt.