Definition of "yea"

Yea, and the prophet of the heav'nly lyre, / Great Solomon sings in the English quire […]

1597–1598, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum

Let no man say that the Devil is not a cruel tyrant. He may give his folk some scrapings of unhallowed pleasure, but he will exact tithes, yea, of anise and cummin, in return, and there is aye the reckoning to pay at the hinder end.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

[N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]

1604, Jeremy Corderoy, A Short Dialogve, wherein is Proved, that No Man can be Saved without Good VVorkes, 2nd edition, Oxford: Printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne, by Simon Waterson, page 40

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

c. 1633, John Donne, The Flea

Recently senators could fax in their yeas or nays to the committee chairman.

2009 January 6, “Still Broken After All These Years”, in New York Times‎