释义 |
▪ I. † foy, n.1 Obs. [a. F. foi, later form of fei fay n.1, faith.] a. Faith, allegiance, homage. b. As an asseverative exclamation.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 41 Did foy and tribute raise. 1694Congreve Double Dealer i. iv, O foy! Sir Paul! what do you mean? ▪ II. foy, n.2 Now dial.|fɔɪ| [a. Du. fooi (in Kilian foye, voye), prob., as Kilian suggests, a. Fr. voie way, journey.] A parting entertainment, present, cup of liquor, etc., given by or to one setting out on a journey. In different parts of Scotland applied variously to a party given in honour of a woman on the eve of her marriage; to a feast at the end of the harvest or fishing season; and the like.
1496–7Recs. Burgh Prestwick 6 Feb. (Maitl.) 34 He said the said balȝeis was foy takaris, and held na courtis. c1645Howell Lett. II. xii, Hoping to enjoy you before you go, and to give you a frendly foy. 1668J. Gibson Let. to F. Wright 24 Aug., My due deserved thanks..for y⊇ friendly foy you pleased to giue me at our parting. 1700Farquhar Const. Couple i. i, I'll pay my foy, drink a health to my King..and away for Hungary to-morrow morning. 1741Richardson Pamela (1824) I. xxxvii. 343 Under the notion of my foy, I slid a couple of guineas into the good woman's hand. 1854Phemie Millar 175 Mr. Millar could not reconcile himself to Isabella's foy being passed over without notice. 1856E. Edmondston Sk. & T. Shetland Isl. iv. 46 At the Foys, the time-honoured toast is, The Lord open the mouths of the gray fish. 1896Mackay Hist. Fife & Kinross x. 196 The Foy or farewell supper before Martinmas was specially a ploughman's feast. ▪ III. foy, v. local.|fɔɪ| [‘Mr. G. H. Haswell informs us that on the north-east coast (esp. at Shields), a foy-boat was a small boat used (before the introduction of steam-tugs) to tow vessels in and out of harbour. The boat carried a small anchor or ‘kedge’, and was rowed a certain distance ahead of the vessel being towed; the kedge was then dropped, and the men on the ship ‘hove upon’ the kedge with a windlass until the vessel came over it, when the kedge was taken up and the process repeated. The operation was called foying, and the men employed foy-men. (See The Maister: a Century of Tyneside Life, p. 39.)’ (N.E.D. Addenda).] intr. To go off to ships with provisions and assist them when in distress (Simson Historic Thanet 110). Hence ˈfoyer, one who does this; foy-boat, a boat used by ‘foyers’.
1813R. Edington Coal Trade 225 Not less than 500 pilot and foy-boats. 1830Beauties Thanet I. 71 The Foyers of this town form a numerous and hardy class. |