Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ClarissaMach]

What is the meaning of "hay" in the sentence below:


Much psychological hay has been made of the story of Beauty and the Beast; the men are all passive, the older women are less sympathetic, the youngest one pure and virginal and even the desired rose has come in for its share of analysis.

[CP]

The roots of this are in the old expression, "Make hay while the sun shines." It means you have to do things at the right time, or when the opportunity presents itself, if you want to do them at all. If you don't cut the grass and let it dry out to make hay when it is sunny, you certainly can't do it when it rains.

So "make hay" has come to mean "get things done," "get results," and even "make money."

Here, the hay that has been made is all the psychological analysis that has been done about the story.
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