quay
- 01 C2 Proficiency
to bring a ship to a quay and tie it there.
to land or moor a vessel at a quay; often used in the phrasal form 'quay up'.
Simple“The captain managed to quay the large ship safely despite the strong winds.”
In context“The vessel was instructed to quay up at the northern terminal to facilitate the immediate transfer of perishable goods.”
UsagePrimarily used in nautical or maritime logistics contexts.
“Stone-built structures such as docks, quays and breakwaters give us important clues, but they do not always reveal the full picture.”
The current spelling replaced the spelling key in the 1690s to emulate the spelling but (at least originally) not the pronunciation of the equivalent modern French quai. From Middle English kay, key, kaye, keye, from Old French kay, cail, from Gaulish kagyum, cagiíun (“enclosure”), from Proto-Celtic kagyom (“pen, enclosure”) (compare Welsh cae (“field”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Doublet of hedge and hey (“choreographic figure”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.