say

Verb

say (third-person singular simple present says, present participle saying, simple past and past participle said)

1. (transitive) To pronounce.

   Please say your name slowly and clearly.

2. (transitive) To recite.

   Martha, will you say the Pledge of Allegiance?

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

3. To tell, either verbally or in writing.

   He said he would be here tomorrow.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.

4. To indicate in a written form.

   The sign says it’s 50 kilometres to Paris.

5. (impersonal) To have a common expression; used in singular passive voice or plural active voice to indicate a rumor or well-known fact.

   They say "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", which means "behave as those around you do."

   • 1815, George Gordon Byron, The Hebrew Melodies/They say that Hope is happiness:

     They say that Hope is happiness; But genuine Love must prize the past.

   • 1819, Great Britain Court of Chancery, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, page 8:

     It is said, a bargain cannot be set aside upon inadequacy only.

   • 1841, Christopher Marshall, The Knickerbocker (New-York Monthly Magazine), page 379:

     It’s said that fifteen wagon loads of ready-made clothes for the Virginia troops came to, and stay in, town to-night.

6. (informal, imperative) Suppose, assume; used to mark an example, supposition or hypothesis.

   A holiday somewhere warm – Florida, say – would be nice.

   Say he refuses. What do we do then?

   Say your family is starving and you don't have any money, is it ok to steal some food?

   • 1984, Martin Amis, Money: a suicide note

     I've followed Selina down the strip, when we're shopping, say, and she strolls on ahead, wearing sawn-off jeans and a wash-withered T-shirt […]

7. (intransitive) To speak; to express an opinion; to make answer; to reply.
   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

     You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge.

   • John Milton (1608-1674)

     To this argument we shall soon have said; for what concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household privacies?

8. (transitive, informal, of a possession, especially money) To bet as a wager on an outcome; by extension, used to express belief in an outcome by the speaker.
   • 2005, Ian McEwan, Saturday, page 192:

     'My fifty pounds says three months after the invasion there'll be a free press in Iraq, and unmonitored internet access too.'

Noun

say (plural says)

1. One's stated opinion or input into a discussion or decision.
   • 2004, Richard Rogers, Information politics on the Web

     Above all, however, we would like to think that there is more to be decided, after the engines and after the humans have had their says.

Adverb

say (not comparable)

1. For example; let us assume.

   Pick a color you think they'd like, say, peach.

   He was driving pretty fast, say, fifty miles per hour.

Interjection

say

1. (colloquial) Used to gain one's attention before making an inquiry or suggestion

   Say, what did you think about the movie?

References

• say in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• say in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Noun

say (countable and uncountable, plural says)

1. A type of fine cloth similar to serge.
   • 1579, Edmund Spenser, “Avgvst”, in The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Tvvelue Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelue Monethes. Entitled to the Noble and Vertuous Gentleman Most Worthy of All Titles both of Learning and Cheualrie M. Philip Sidney, London: Printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in Creede Lane neere vnto Ludgate at the signe of the gylden Tunne, and are there to be solde, OCLC 606515406; republished London: Printed by Bar[tholomew] Alsop for Iohn Harrison the elder, and are to bee solde at his shop at the signe of the golden Anker in Pater Noster Row, OCLC 863502068, in The Faerie Queene: The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the Other Works of England’s Arch-Poët, Edm. Spenser: Collected into One Volume, and Carefully Corrected, [London]: Printed by H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes, 1617, OCLC 940410628, page 35, column 2:

     Per[igot] VVell decked in a frocke of gray, / Wil[ly] hey ho, gray is greet, / Per. And in a kirtle of green ſay, / [Wil.] the greene is for maydens meet.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.iv:

     All in a kirtle of discolourd say / He clothed was […]

Verb

say (third-person singular simple present says, present participle saying, simple past and past participle sayed)

1. To try; to assay.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

Noun

say (plural says)

1. Trial by sample; assay; specimen.
   • Hooker

     If those principal works of God […] be but certain tastes and says, as if were, of that final benefit.

   • Shakespeare

     Thy tongue some say of breeding breathes.

2. Tried quality; temper; proof.
   • Spenser

     He found a sword of better say.

3. Essay; trial; attempt.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

Declension

Derived terms