הֲבַאי, (הבי, הוי, cmp. הבל) [breath,] vanity, vain talk; impossibility, exaggeration, rhetorical phrase. Ned. III, 1 נדרי הב׳ vows made dependent on an impossibility, expl. ib. 2 קונם וכ׳ I may be forbidden …, if I have not seen &c. (a mere exaggeration not meant literally). Ib. 24ᵇ שבועות ה׳ oaths affirming &c. (Shebu. III, 8 שבועת שוא). Ḥull. 90ᵇ לשון הב׳ Ar. (ed. הו׳) exaggeration in rhetorical speech; Tam. 29ᵃ; a. e. V. גּוּזְמָא.