▪ I. heigh, int. (n.)
(heɪ, heː)
[Cf. also he int.1, hech, hegh, heh, hey.]
A. int. An exclamation used as a call of encouragement.
| 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. i, They'll leap from one thing to another, heigh! dance and do tricks in their discourse. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. i. 6 Heigh my hearts, cheerely, cheerely my harts. 1611 ― Wint. T. iv. iii. 2 When Daffodils begin to peere, With heigh the Doxy ouer the dale. 1750 Wesley Wks. (1872) IX. 75 Now, heigh for the Romans! 1871 J. Miller Songs Italy (1878) 116 Heigh boot and heigh horse, and away with a will. |
b. As an expression of inquiry: cf. eh?
| 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair (1878) II. xvi. 173 Heigh ha? Run him through the body. Marry somebody else, hay? |
B. n. Used as a name for the exclamation.
| 1573–80 Baret Alv. H 369 An Heigh, or shrill sound, extentus sonus. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 61 What..with my Spanish sospires, my French heighes. 1595 Enq. Tripe-wife (1881) 146 Shall he run vp and downe the town, with friskes, and heighs, and fillops, and trickes. |
▪ II. heigh
obs. form of hay, hie v.1, high a.