An archaic or dialectal word meaning abeyance; a state of suspension or waiting.
From Old French a baye or en abay (at bay, in abeyance), possibly related to abeyance. This appears to be an obsolete variant or abbreviation of abeyance used in older English texts.
Abey is like an old English shorthand for abeyance—you might find it in medieval legal documents where scribes wanted to save ink, but modern English dropped it for the clearer full form!
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