may

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: AS. pres. maeg I am able, pret. meahte, mihte; akin to D. mogen, G. mögen, OHG. mugan, magan, Icel. mega, Goth. magan, Russ. moche. √103. Cf. Dismay, Main strength, Might. The old imp. mought is obsolete, except as a provincial word.

An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb, by expressing: (a) Ability, competency, or possibility; — now oftener expressed by can.

How may a man, said he, with idle speech, Be won to spoil the castle of his health!— Edmund Spenser

For what he [the king] may do is of two kinds; what he may do as just, and what he may do as possible.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon

For of all sad words of tongue or pen The saddest are these: “It might have been.”— John Greenleaf Whittier

(b) Liberty; permission; allowance.

Thou mayst be no longer steward.— Luke xvi. 2.

(c) Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.

Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance Some general maxims, or be right by chance.— Alexander Pope

(d) Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a question or remark.

How old may Phillis be, you ask.— Matthew Prior

(e) Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction, and the like. “May you live happily.” John Dryden

May be, and It may be, are used as equivalent to possibly, perhaps, maybe, by chance, peradventure. See 1st Maybe.

Origin: Cf. Icel. maer, Goth. mawi; akin to E. maiden. √103.

A maiden. obsolete Geoffrey Chaucer

Origin: F. Mai, L. Maius; so named in honor of the goddess Maia (Gr. Μαῖα), daughter of Atlas and mother of Mercury by Jupiter.

1. The fifth month of the year, containing thirty-one days. Geoffrey Chaucer

2. The early part or springtime of life.

His May of youth, and bloom of lustihood.— William Shakespeare

3. Botany The flowers of the hawthorn; — so called from their time of blossoming; also, the hawthorn.

The palm and may make country houses gay.— Thomas Nash

Plumes that mocked the may.— Alfred Tennyson

4. The merrymaking of May Day. Alfred Tennyson

Italian may Botany, a shrubby species of Spiraea (Spiraea hypericifolia) with many clusters of small white flowers along the slender branches. — May apple Botany, the fruit of an American plant (Podophyllum peltatum). Also, the plant itself (popularly called mandrake), which has two lobed leaves, and bears a single egg-shaped fruit at the forking. The root and leaves, used in medicine, are powerfully drastic. — May beetle, May bug Zoology, any one of numerous species of large lamellicorn beetles that appear in the winged state in May. They belong to Melolontha, and allied genera. Called also June beetle. — May Day, the first day of May; — celebrated in the rustic parts of England by the crowning of a May queen with a garland, and by dancing about a May pole. — May dew, the morning dew of the first day of May, to which magical properties were attributed. — May flower Botany, a plant that flowers in May; also, its blossom. See Mayflower, in the vocabulary. — May fly Zoology, any species of Ephemera, and allied genera; — so called because the mature flies of many species appear in May. See Ephemeral fly, under Ephemeral. — May game, any May-day sport. — May lady, the queen or lady of May, in old May games. — May lily Botany, the lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). — May pole. See Maypole in the Vocabulary. — May queen, a girl or young woman crowned queen in the sports of May Day. — May thorn, the hawthorn.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54