Verb

(obsolete) To summon; call out.

To anathematise; pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; place under a ban.

To curse; execrate.

* (Spenser)

* (Sir Walter Scott)

To prohibit; interdict; proscribe; forbid or block from participation.

* (Byron)

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 14, author=Steven Morris, work=Guardian

, title= Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave , passage=Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}

To curse; utter curses or maledictions.

Verb

(en verb)

(nautical) To incline forward, aft, or to one side by means of stays.

stay a mast

(nautical) To tack; put on the other tack.

to stay ship

(nautical) To change; tack; go about; be in stays, as a ship.

Verb

(en verb)

To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.

To stop; detain; keep back; delay; hinder.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Your ships are stay'd at Venice.

* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

This business staid me in London almost a week.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new.

* (Bible), (w) xvii. 12

Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Sallows and reedsfor vineyards useful found / To stay thy vines.

To restrain; withhold; check; stop.

* (Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)

all that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false

To put off; defer; postpone; delay; keep back.

To hold the attention of.

To bear up under; to endure; to hold out against; to resist.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

She will not stay the siege of loving terms, / Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes.

To wait for; await.

To rest; depend; rely.

* (w) 30:12, (w)

Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I stay here on my bond.

To stop; come to a stand or standstill.

To come to an end; cease.

That day the storm stayed .

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Here my commission stays .

To dwell; linger; tarry; wait.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

I must stay a little on one action.

To make a stand; stand.

To hold out, as in a race or contest; last or persevere to the end.

That horse stays well.

To remain in a particular place, especially for an indefinite time; sojourn; abide.

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

She would command the hasty sun to stay .

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Stay , I command you; stay and hear me first.

* (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)

I stay a little longer, as one stays / To cover up the embers that still burn.

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.}}

To wait; rest in patience or expectation.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I'll tell thee all my whole device / When I am in my coach, which stays for us.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

The father cannot stay any longer for the fortune.

To wait as an attendant; give ceremonious or submissive attendance.

To continue to have a particular quality.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

The flames augment, and stay / At their full height, then languish to decay.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",

To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.

* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute.

(obsolete) To remain for the purpose of; to wait for.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I stay dinner there.

To cause to cease; to put an end to.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Stay your strife.

* (Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)

For flattering planets seemed to say / This child should ills of ages stay .

To fasten or secure with stays.

to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler