MAY
- Definiția din dicționar
Traducere: română
Notă: Puteţi căuta fiecare cuvânt din cadrul definiţiei printr-un simplu click pe cuvântul dorit.
May (m&ā;), v. [imp. Might (m&ī;t)] [AS. pres. mæg I am able, pret. meahte, mihte; akin to D. mogen, G. m&ö;gen, OHG. mugan, magan, Icel. mega, Goth. magan, Russ. moche. √103. Cf. Dismay, Main strength, Might. The old imp. mought is obsolete, except as a provincial word.] An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb, by expressing: (a) Ability, competency, or possibility; -- now oftener expressed by can.
[1913 Webster]
How may a man, said he, with idle speech,
Be won to spoil the castle of his health!
Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
For what he [the king] may do is of two kinds; what he may do as just, and what he may do as possible.
Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
For of all sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these: “It might have been.”
Whittier.
[1913 Webster]
(b) Liberty; permission; allowance.
[1913 Webster]
Thou mayst be no longer steward.
Luke xvi. 2.
[1913 Webster]
(c) Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.
[1913 Webster]
Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance
Some general maxims, or be right by chance.
Pope.
[1913 Webster]
(d) Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a question or remark.
[1913 Webster]
How old may Phillis be, you ask.
Prior.
[1913 Webster]
(e) Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction, and the like. “May you live happily.” Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
May be, and It may be, are used as equivalent to possibly, perhaps, maybe, by chance, peradventure. See 1st Maybe.
[1913 Webster]
May, n. [Cf. Icel. mær, Goth. mawi; akin to E. maiden. √103.] A maiden. [Obs.] Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
May, n. [F. Mai, L. Maius; so named in honor of the goddess Maia (Gr. Mai^a), daughter of Atlas and mother of Mercury by Jupiter.] 1. The fifth month of the year, containing thirty-one days. Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
2. The early part or springtime of life.
[1913 Webster]
His May of youth, and bloom of lustihood.
Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Bot.) The flowers of the hawthorn; -- so called from their time of blossoming; also, the hawthorn.
[1913 Webster]
The palm and may make country houses gay.
Nash.
[1913 Webster]
Plumes that mocked the may.
Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
4. The merrymaking of May Day. Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
Italian may (Bot.), a shrubby species of Spiræa (Spiræa hypericifolia) with many clusters of small white flowers along the slender branches. -- May apple (Bot.), the fruit of an American plant (Podophyllum peltatum). Also, the plant itself (popularly called mandrake), which has two lobed leaves, and bears a single egg-shaped fruit at the forking. The root and leaves, used in medicine, are powerfully drastic. -- May beetle, May bug (Zo&ö;l.), any one of numerous species of large lamellicorn beetles that appear in the winged state in May. They belong to Melolontha, and allied genera. Called also June beetle. -- May Day, the first day of May; -- celebrated in the rustic parts of England by the crowning of a May queen with a garland, and by dancing about a May pole. -- May dew, the morning dew of the first day of May, to which magical properties were attributed. -- May flower (Bot.), a plant that flowers in May; also, its blossom. See Mayflower, in the vocabulary. -- May fly (Zo&ö;l.), any species of Ephemera, and allied genera; -- so called because the mature flies of many species appear in May. See Ephemeral fly, under Ephemeral. -- May game, any May-day sport. -- May lady, the queen or lady of May, in old May games. -- May lily (Bot.), the lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). -- May pole. See Maypole in the Vocabulary. -- May queen, a girl or young woman crowned queen in the sports of May Day. -- May thorn, the hawthorn.
[1913 Webster]
