hey! excl.
a piece of verbal punctuation, used as a form of intimacy, suggesting a complicity between addressee and addressed.
![]() | Memoirs III 42: And your amiable daughters? Any of them married yet? Any of them thinking of it, hey? | |
![]() | Little Women II 17: ‘I never cry unless from some great affliction.’ ‘Such as old fellows going to college, hey?’. | |
![]() | ‘’Arry on Ochre’ in Punch 15 Oct. 169/2: Save, hay, — out of two quid a week! | |
![]() | New Yorker 9 Nov. 31/2: ‘You’re in town for this Donnybrook [i.e. a college football game] at the Stadium, hey? What do you do, cover all Notre Dame games?’ . | ‘Pilfrimage’ in|
![]() | Worlds Part I iv: Hey up! old age P. | |
![]() | (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 36: I’m older than you but, hey, I’m one of you. | |
![]() | Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 6: But, hey, I loved Men in Black. |
In phrases
(US) to act in a boisterous, celebratory manner.
![]() | 🎵 When summer is here, / the farmers get gay, / They all make whoopie and hay-hay! | ‘Catch On’|
![]() | Dames Don’t Care (1960) 67: There are [...] some city guys from Los Angeles makin’ hey-hey. |