may

verb

1. (intransitive, no-past-participle, no-present-participle, obsolete)To be strong; to have power (over).
2. (auxiliary, no-past-participle, no-present-participle, obsolete)To be able; can.

   “But many times[…]we give way to passions we may resist and will not.”

3. (intransitive, no-past-participle, no-present-participle, poetic)To be able to go.

   “O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East, That I may backe to Athens by day-light […].”

4. (auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past-participle, no-present-participle)To have permission to, be allowed. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests.

   “you may smoke outside”

   “may I sit there?”

5. (auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past-participle, no-present-participle)Granting the admissibility of a supposition, in a way that can be semantically either subjunctive or indicative.

   “he may be lying”

   “Schrödinger's cat may or may not be in the box.”

   “Sam may be intelligent, but he isn't wise. [This speaker does not know with certainty whether Sam is intelligent, but the speaker allows the possibility.]”

   “A female crocodile may lay up to forty eggs. [Typical occurrence.]”

   “The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.”

6. (auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past-participle, no-present-participle)Granting the admissibility of a supposition, in a way that can be semantically either subjunctive or indicative.

   “You may be my boss, but that doesn't mean you can insult me.”

   “A: Sigh. I'm bummed that Stephen Hawking died. B: Well, he may have died, but he's still alive in our hearts. [This speaker does not doubt that Stephen has died; nonetheless, the verb inflection is not different.]”

   “Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.”

7. (defective, no-past-participle, no-present-participle, poetic, present, subjunctive)Expressing a wish (with present subjunctive effect).

   “may you win;  may the weather be sunny;  long may your reign last”

   “Let us pray that peace may soon return to our war-torn homeland.”

   “May God bless and keep you always / May your wishes all come true / May you always do for others / And let others do for you / May you build a ladder to the stars / And climb on every rung / May you stay forever young”

   “May I never miss the thrill of being near you”

8. (auxiliary, defective, modal, no-past-participle, no-present-participle)Used in modesty, courtesy, or concession, or to soften a question or remark.

   “How old may Phillis be, you ask, / Whose Beauty thus all Hearts engages.”

9. (intransitive, poetic)To gather may, or flowers in general.

   “Soo it befelle in the moneth of May / quene Gueneuer called vnto her knyȝtes of the table round / and she gafe them warnynge that erly vpon the morowe she wold ryde on mayeng in to woodes & feldes besyde westmynstre. "So it befell in the month of May, Queen Guenever called unto her knights of the Table Round; and she gave them warning that early upon the morrow she would ride a-Maying into woods and fields beside Westminster."”

   “In valleys green and still / Where lovers wander maying”

10. (intransitive, poetic)To celebrate May Day.

noun

1. (uncountable)The hawthorn bush or its blossoms.

   “The fire from Lindfield was coming down the grassy hillside to the right between the hedges of may.”

2. (archaic)A maiden.

name

1. (countable, uncountable)The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.

   “Holonyms: calendar year; year”

   “All in the merry month of May, / When green leaves they was springing, / This young man on his death-bed lay, / For the love of Barbara Allen.”

   “At a signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on May 29, the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan ratified the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) into existence. An EEU modeled on the European Union was first mooted back in 1994 by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, but took off only after his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, seized upon its potential as a Moscow-centered, Asia-oriented alternative to the EU.”

   “In May, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller told reporters the Trump administration is “looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus for migrants under claims of an “invasion.””

2. (countable, uncountable)A female given name, usually pet name for Mary and Margaret, reinforced by the month and plant meaning.

   “[…] I will not send Owen's Lily May to the almshouse." "Lily―what?" demanded Mrs. Morley rather sharply, for she was half provoked with what she mentally called Amy's whim of keeping the outcast child when she might send it to the asylum. "Lily May," said Amy, smiling. "Her name is Mary, and we called her first Little Mary, and then Little May. But Owen calls her Lily May."”

   “Their parents named them June and May because their birthdays occurred in those months. […] May was like the time of year in which she had been born, changeable, chilly and warm by turns, sullen yet able to know and show loveliness that couldn't last.”

   “It's an awkward name: Isamay, pronounced Is-a-may. Isa is my paternal grandmother's name (shortened from Isabel) and May my maternal grandmother's (it comes, somehow, from Margaret). The amalgamation is, as you see, strictly alphabetical. Life, I feel, would have been much easier if they had chosen Maybel.”

   “Sahaiʔa May Talbot was born on Feb. 15, 2014. However, on her birth certificate, her name is spelled Sahai'a because the Northwest Territories government only allows the Roman alphabet to be used on official documents.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A surname from Middle English.
4. (countable, uncountable)A surname from Middle English.
5. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
6. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
7. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
8. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
9. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
10. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
11. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
12. A surname.
13. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of May.