hoy

• IPA^(key): /hɔɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

Borrowed from German Heu or Dutch gooi.

hoy (plural hoys)

1. (nautical) A small coaster vessel, usually sloop-rigged, used in conveying passengers and goods, or as a tender to larger vessels in port.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     He sent to Germanie, straunge aid to reare,
     From whence eftsoones arriued here three hoyes
     Of Saxons, whom he for his safetie imployes.

   • 1590 May 31, George Carew, letter to William Cecil:

     Per packet per Hoy.

   • 1779 July, William Cowper, letter to the Rev. William Unwin:

     The hoy went to London every week.

   • 1810, Thomas Williamson, The East India Vade-Mecum, pages 453-454:

     The out-fit is not a trifle: no lady can be landed there, under respectable circumstances throughout, for less than five hundred pounds... [Visiting India] is not like a trip, per hoy, to Margate, where nothing but a well-lined purse is requisite...

   • 1840 November, Francis John Bellew, The Asiatic Journal..., New Series, Vol. XXXIII, No. 131, p. 198:

     Oh, sea-sickness! thou cream of miseries—thou ocean-purgatory!... how presumptuous would it be in me to essay a description of thee, when so many better qualified have failed in the attempt, from the early voyager per hoy to Margate and Ramsgate, to the bolder spirits of more recent times, who, leaving the pleasant sounds of Bow bells, recklessly brave the dangers of a transit to Calais and Boulogne!

   • 1847, “Vote for Alderman Johnson”, in Punch, volume XIII, page 40:

     Alderman Johnson condemns the Reform Act, and is for going backward, in all things, to the good times. Punch humbly suggests that every man who votes for the Crab Alderman should be punished as follows:— The said voter never to be permitted to travel by rail, but to journey to York or elsewhere by the very slowest coach. Never to go to Margate by steamboat, but to take three days to the voyage, per hoy. Never to send a letter by penny-post, but to pay 10d. or 13d., as the case may be—the good old price of the good old times.

• anchor-hoy
• hoyman
• powder hoy

Borrowed from Dutch hoi, compare ahoy.

hoy

1. Hey! ho!, hallo!, stop!

• hoi

• ahoy-hoy

hoy (third-person singular simple present hoys, present participle hoying, simple past and past participle hoyed)

1. (transitive) To incite; to drive onward.

Perhaps related to hoick and hoist.

hoy (third-person singular simple present hoys, present participle hoying or hoyin, simple past and past participle hoyed)

1. (Northumbria, Australia) To throw.

   Synonyms: fling, hurl; see also Thesaurus:throw

   • 1970 June, traditional, “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait‎^[1], performed by Steeleye Span:

     They grab his duds and his picks as well. They hoy him down to the pit of hell. Down you go and fare ye well. You dirty blackleg miner.

• “hoy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[2]
• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “HOY”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “hoy”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[3], archived from the original on 5 September 2024.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• “Hoy”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[4], archived from the original on 5 September 2024, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “hoy”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.

• hyo-

From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawją.

hoy n

1. hay

• hoytjauk (“haystack”)

Unadapted borrowing from English hoy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔj/
• Rhymes: -ɔj
• Hyphenation: hòy

hoy m (invariable)

1. (nautical) hoy (small coaster vessel)

hoy (third-person singular simple present hoy, present participle hoyin, simple past hoyed, past participle hoyed)

1. (Southern Scots) to throw

Inherited from Old Spanish oy, from Latin hodiē. Cognate with Italian oggi, and Portuguese hoje.

• IPA^(key): /ˈoi/ [ˈoi̯]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oi
• Syllabification: hoy

hoy

1. today

   Antonyms: ayer, mañana

   Hoy es lunes, 28 de julio de 2025.

   Today is Monday, July 28, 2025.

• “hoy”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• huy, oy, uy

Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: English hoy, Dutch hoi, Japanese おい (oi), etc.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈhoj/ [ˈhoɪ̯]
• Rhymes: -oj
• Syllabification: hoy

hoy (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜓᜌ᜔) (colloquial, vulgar)

1. expression used to call the attention of somebody: hey!

   Synonyms: alahoy, (obsolete) ughi, (obsolete) ughoy

   Hoy! Gumising na kayong lahat dyan!

   Hey! Wake up all of you there!

2. expression used as a warning or as a protest: hey!

   Synonyms: alahoy, (obsolete) ughi, (obsolete) ughoy

   Hoy! Hindi ako ang kumuha ng pera mo!

   Hey! I didn't take your money!

• The expression hoy can be perceived as disrespectful in some contexts, especially with one's seniors or superiors. Reactions may be heard such as:

  Huwag mo akong hoy-hoyin! ― Don't you 'hoy' me!

• “hoy”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018