jay
part of speech
noun (a jay, jays); also the letter J (jay); also a name (Jay)
meaning for a pupil
1) A jay is a noisy, colourful bird of the crow family; the Eurasian jay is pinkish brown with bright blue wing patches, and the blue jay of North America is blue and white. tree →
2) «Jay» is how we say and sometimes write the letter J. tree →
3) Jay is also a name (a name). tree →
4) Jay can also be an insult for a silly, foolish person. tree →
sense in the lessons
In nature lessons jays are famous for burying acorns to eat in winter; the forgotten ones grow into oak trees, so jays help plant forests. Their loud screech warns other animals of danger. In North America, the blue jay is a common garden bird. Phrases: «blue jay», «a jay's screech».
examples
- A jay buried acorns all over the park. tree →
- The jay screeched loudly when the cat came near. tree →
- Blue jays visited our bird feeder in Toronto. tree →
- Jays are clever members of the crow family. tree →
- Forgotten acorns hidden by jays grow into new oak trees. tree →
- «Jay» is the name of the letter J. tree →
- My cousin Jay plays the drums. tree →
- “You dunderheaded little jay!” she screamed, “Why don’t you do as I tell you?” tree →
note
Plural «jays». Capital J for the name. Trap: in old American slang «jaywalk» means to cross the road carelessly away from a crossing; that word came from «jay» meaning a silly country person.
In the corpora
- A jay's feather is blue because of shape: crush it and the blue is gone, leaving grey-brown.
- At pick-up, Liam-Jay's mum is stumbling and slurring.
- Liam-Jay is mortified, which means so embarrassed he wants to vanish.
- «Cheers, pal.» Liam-Jay doesn't need it that week, but he knows where to go.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «jay» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.