bay

bay: see laurel; magnolia.

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bay

In architecture, any division of a building between vertical lines or planes, especially the entire space included between the centerlines of two adjacent vertical supports. The space between two columns or pilasters, or from pier to pier in a church, including that part of the vaulting (see vault) or ceiling between them, is thus called a bay.

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bay

Any of several small trees with aromatic leaves, especially the sweet bay, or bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), source of the bay leaf used in cooking. The California laurel (Umbellularia californica) is an ornamental tree also called the bay tree. The bay rum tree, or simply bay (Pimenta racemosa), has leaves and twigs that yield, when distilled, oil of bay, which is used in perfumery and in the preparation of bay rum, a fragrant cosmetic and medicinal liquid.

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bay

Semicircular or nearly circular concavity, similar to a gulf but usually smaller. Bays may range from a few hundred yards to several hundred miles from side to side. They are usually located where easily eroded rocks, such as clays and sandstones, are bounded by harder, more erosion-resistant formations of igneous rocks, such as granite, or hard calcareous rocks, such as massive limestones. Some bays form excellent harbours.

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bay

See drive bay and Bay Networks.

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bay¹

1. a wide semicircular indentation of a shoreline, esp between two headlands or peninsulas

2. an extension of lowland into hills that partly surround it

3. US an extension of prairie into woodland

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bay²

1. an alcove or recess in a wall

2. See bay window

3. a compartment in an aircraft, esp one used for a specified purpose

4. Nautical a compartment in the forward part of a ship between decks, often used as the ship's hospital

5. Brit a tracked recess in the platform of a railway station, esp one forming the terminus of a branch line

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bay³

1. a small evergreen Mediterranean laurel, Laurus nobilis, with glossy aromatic leaves, used for flavouring in cooking, and small blackish berries

2. any of various other trees with strongly aromatic leaves used in cooking, esp a member of the genera Myrica or Pimenta

3. any of several magnolias

4. any of certain other trees or shrubs, esp bayberry

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bay⁴

a. a moderate reddish-brown colour

b. (as adjective): a bay horse

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bay [bā]

(aerospace engineering)

A space formed by structural partitions on an aircraft.

(architecture)

Division of a building between adjacent beams or columns.

(botany)

Laurus nobilis.An evergreen tree of the laurel family.

(computer science)

drive bay

(electromagnetism)

One segment of an antenna array.

(engineering)

A housing used for equipment.

(geography)

A body of water, smaller than a gulf and larger than a cove in a recess in the shoreline.

A narrow neck of water leading from the sea between two headlands.

(geophysics)

A simple transient magnetic disturbance, usually an hour in duration, whose appearance on a magnetic record has the shape of a V or a bay of the sea.

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(hardware)

bay - (As in an aeroplane "cargo bay") A space in a cabinet into which a device of a certain size can be physically mounted and connected to power and data. Common examples are a "drive bay" into which a disk drive (usually either 3.5 inch or 5.25 inch) can be inserted or the space in a docking station where you insert a notebook computer or laptop computer to work as a desktop computer or to charge their batteries, print or connect to the office network, etc.