ay

Ah! alas! Expressing anger, alarm, frustration, pain, etc.

And ſuch as yet, coulde neuer weapon wꝛeſt, / But on the lappe are woont to dandled be, / Ne yet foꝛgotten had the mothers bꝛeſt, / How greekes them ſlew, alas here ſhall ye ſe, / To make repoꝛte therof, ay woe is me, / My ſong is miſchiefe, murder miſerye.

Expressing earnestness, surprise, wonder, etc.

Ay my word! I am glad to see you.

Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.

Used in ay, ay.

Alternative spelling of aye (“yes”).

"Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin; "thou seemest happy this merry morn." "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher; "and why should I not be so?[…]"

I swear also that I will honour and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very end, come it soon or late.

Alternative spelling of aye (“yes”).

counting the ays and the noes in a vote