AT BAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does at bay mean? 

• AT BAY (adjective)
  The adjective AT BAY has 1 sense:

1. forced to turn and face attackers

  Familiarity information: AT BAY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AT BAY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Forced to turn and face attackers

Synonyms:

at bay; cornered; trapped; treed

Context example:

like a trapped animal

Similar:

unfree (hampered and not free; not able to act at will)

 Context examples 

Considering how much work is coming through your office, working out would be a perfect way to keep stress at bay.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

These belts, called the Van Allen Radiation Belts, keep most of the high-energy particles at bay.

(FIREBIRD II and NASA Mission Locate Whistling Space Electrons’ Origins, NASA)

When I reached the end I stood at bay.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Not for your life!" he said; "not for your living soul and hers!" And he stood between them like a lion at bay.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He would run till Buck’s head was even with his flank, when he would whirl around at bay, only to dash away again at the first opportunity.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

On this occasion he seemed to think he was introduced expressly to keep Traddles at bay; and he barked at my old friend, and made short runs at his plate, with such undaunted pertinacity, that he may be said to have engrossed the conversation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Alighting at the small wayside station, we drove for some miles through the remains of widespread woods, which were once part of that great forest which for so long held the Saxon invaders at bay—the impenetrable weald, for sixty years the bulwark of Britain.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But my aunt, suddenly descrying among them the young malefactor who was the donkey's guardian, and who was one of the most inveterate offenders against her, though hardly in his teens, rushed out to the scene of action, pounced upon him, captured him, dragged him, with his jacket over his head, and his heels grinding the ground, into the garden, and, calling upon Janet to fetch the constables and justices, that he might be taken, tried, and executed on the spot, held him at bay there.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)