Fancy vs Lay - What's the difference?
fancy | lay |
The imagination.
* Milton
An image or representation of anything formed in the mind; conception; thought; idea.
* Shakespeare
An opinion or notion formed without much reflection; an impression.
* John Locke
A whim.
Love or amorous attachment.
The object of inclination or liking.
* Shakespeare
Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
* De Quincey
A diamond with a distinctive colour.
That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value.
* Mortimer
(obsolete) A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad.
In the game of jacks, a style of play involving additional actions (contrasted with plainsies).
* 1970 , Marta Weigle, Follow my fancy: the book of jacks and jack games (page 22)
* 2002 , Elizabeth Dana Jaffe, ?Sherry L. Field, ?Linda D. Labbo, Jacks (page 26)
Decorative.
Of a superior grade.
Executed with skill.
(colloquial) Unnecessarily complicated.
(obsolete) Extravagant; above real value.
* Macaulay
(formal) To appreciate without jealousy or greed.
(British) would like
(British, informal) To be sexually attracted to.
(dated) To imagine, suppose.
* John Locke
* Thackeray
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
To form a conception of; to portray in the mind; to imagine.
* Dryden
To have a fancy for; to like; to be pleased with, particularly on account of external appearance or manners.
* Shakespeare
(label) To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
* Bible, (w) vi. 17
* 1735 , author unknown, The New-England Primer'', as reported by Fred R. Shapiro in ''The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), Yale University Press, pages 549–550:
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1
, passage=He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him.}}
*
*:An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
:: A corresponding intransitive version of this word is .
To cause to subside or abate.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.viii:
* 1662 , , Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems , Dialogue 2:
(label) To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).
* 2006 , (Clive James), North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 48:
(label) To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
(label) To produce and deposit an egg.
(label) To bet (that something is or is not the case).
(label) To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To have sex with.
* 1944 , (Raymond Chandler), The Lady in the Lake , Penguin 2011, p. 11:
(label) To take a position; to come or go.
(label) To state; to allege.
(label) To point; to aim.
(label) To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them.
(label) To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
(label) To place (new type) properly in the cases.
To apply; to put.
* Bible, (w) xxxi. 19
To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.).
* Bible, (w) liii. 6
To impute; to charge; to allege.
* Bible, (w) xxiv. 12
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To present or offer.
Arrangement or relationship; layout.
A share of the profits in a business.
* 1851 ,
The direction a rope is twisted.
(colloquial) A casual sexual partner.
* 1996 , JoAnn Ross, Southern Comforts , MIRA (1996), ISBN 9780778315254,
* 2000 , R. J. Kaiser, Fruitcake , MIRA (2000), ISBN 1551666251,
* 2011 , Kelly Meding, Trance , Pocket Books (2011), ISBN 9781451620924,
(colloquial) An act of sexual intercourse.
* 1993 , David Halberstam, The Fifties , Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ISBN 9781453286074,
* 2009 , Fern Michaels, The Scoop , Kensington Books (2009), ISBN 9780758227188,
* 2011 , Pamela Yaye, Promises We Make , Kimani Press (2011), ISBN 9780373861996,
(slang, archaic) A plan; a scheme.
Non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution.
* {{quote-book
, year=1960
, author=
, title=(Jeeves in the Offing)
, section=chapter VII
, passage=He hasn't caught a mouse since he was a slip of a kitten. Except when eating, he does nothing but sleep. [...] It's a sort of disease. There's a scientific name for it. Trau- something. Traumatic symplegia, that's it. This cat has traumatic symplegia. In other words, putting it in simple language adapted to the lay mind, where other cats are content to get their eight hours, Augustus wants his twenty-four.}}
Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them.
(obsolete) Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.
(lie) when pertaining to position.
(proscribed) To be in a horizontal position; to lie (from confusion with lie).
* 1969' July, Bob Dylan, “'''Lay''' Lady '''Lay ”, ''Nashville Skyline , Columbia:
* a.'' 1970 , Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”, ''Bridge over Troubled Water , Columbia Records:
* 1974 , John Denver, “Annie’s Song”, Back Home Again , RCA:
A ballad or sung poem; a short poem or narrative, usually intended to be sung.
(obsolete) A law.
* Spenser
(obsolete) An obligation; a vow.
* Holland
To don (put on) (tefillin (gloss)).
As a noun fancy
is the imagination.As an adjective fancy
is decorative.As a verb fancy
is (formal) to appreciate without jealousy or greed.As a proper noun lay is
a river in western france.fancy
English
Alternative forms
* (all obsolete)Noun
(fancies)- In the soul / Are many lesser faculties, that serve / Reason as chief. Among these fancy next / Her office holds.
- How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, / Of sorriest fancies your companions making?
- I have always had a fancy that learning might be made a play and recreation to children.
- I had a fancy to learn to play the flute.
- He took a fancy to her.
- to fit your fancies to your father's will
- Trainspotting is the fancy of a special lot.
- the cat fancy
- He fell out of favor with the boxing fancy after the incident.
- a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the fancy
- London pride is a pretty fancy for borders.
- (Shakespeare)
- When you have mastered plainsies, the regular jack game, and have learned all the rules, you will be ready to use this part of the book. A fancy is a variation of plainsies which usually requires more skill than plainsies does.
- When you get good at jacks, try adding a fancy . A fancy is an extra round at the end of a game. It makes the game a little harder. Jack Be Nimble, Around the World, or Black Widow are some fancies.
Derived terms
* flight of fancy * tickle someone's fancyAdjective
(er)- This is a fancy shawl.
- This box contains bottles of the fancy grade of jelly.
- He initiated the game winning play with a fancy , deked saucer pass to the winger.
- I'm not keen on him and his fancy ideas.
- This anxiety never degenerated into a monomania, like that which led his [Frederick the Great's] father to pay fancy prices for giants.
Synonyms
* (decorative) decorative, ornate * (unnecessarily complicated) highfalutinAntonyms
* (decorative) plain, simple * (unnecessarily complicated) simpleVerb
(en-verb)- I fancy your new car, but I like my old one just fine.
- I fancy a burger tonight for dinner
- Do you fancy going to town this weekend?
- I fancy that girl over there.
- I fancy you'll want something to drink after your long journey.
- Fancy meeting you here!
- Fancy that! I saw Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy kissing in the garden.
- If our search has reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we rather fancy than know.
- He fancied he was welcome, because those around him were his kinsmen.
- I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.
- he whom I fancy , but can ne'er express
- We fancy not the cardinal.
Synonyms
* (be sexually attracted to) like (US) * (would like to) feel likeDerived terms
* fancy thatSee also
* fantasy * fancy man * fancy oneself * fancypants * fancy womanExternal links
*lay
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) layen, leggen, from (etyl) .Verb
- to lay''' a book on the table; to '''lay a body in the grave
- A shower of rain lays the dust.
- A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den.
- Now I lay me down to sleep, / I pray the Lord my Soul to keep. / If I should die before I ’wake, / I pray the Lord my Soul to take.
- The cloudes, as things affrayd, before him flye; / But all so soone as his outrageous powre / Is layd , they fiercely then begin to shoure
- But how upon the winds being laid , doth the ship cease to move?
- Even when I lay a long plan, it is never in the expectation that I will live to see it fulfilled.
- lay''' brick; '''lay flooring
- I'll lay that he doesn't turn up on Monday.
- I dare lay mine honour / He will remain so.
- ‘It's because he's a no-good son of a bitch who thinks it is smart to lay his friends' wives and brag about it.’
- to lay''' forward; to '''lay aloft
- to lay the venue
- (Bouvier)
- to lay a gun
- to lay a cable or rope
- She layeth her hands to the spindle.
- to lay a tax on land
- The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- God layeth not folly to them.
- Lay the fault on us.
- to lay''' an indictment in a particular county; to '''lay a scheme before one
Derived terms
* lay a finger on * lay a foundation * lay an egg * lay about * lay away * lay bare * lay-by/lay by * lay claim * lay down * lay hands on * lay-in * laying on of hands * lay into * lay low * layoff * lay on the line * lay on the table * lay out * lay siege * lay the groundwork * lay to rest * lay up * lay waste * get laidReferences
*Etymology 2
From the verb.Noun
(en noun)- the lay of the land
- I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages; but all hands, including the captain, received certain shares of the profits called lays', and that these ' lays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company.
- Worm and parcel with the lay ; turn and serve the other way.
page 166:
- Over the years she'd tried to tell himself that his uptown girl was just another lay .
page 288:
- To find a place like that and be discreet about it, Jones figured he needed help, so he went to see his favorite lay , Juan Carillo's woman, Carmen.
pages 205-206:
- “Because I don't want William to be just another lay . I did the slut thing, T, and it got me into a lot of trouble years ago.
- What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest?
unnumbered page:
- Listening to this dismissal of his work, [Tennessee] Williams thought to himself of Wilder, “This character has never had a good lay .”
pages 212-213:
- She didn't become this germ freak until Thomas died. I wonder if she just needs a good lay , you know, an all-nighter?" Toots said thoughtfully.
unnumbered page:
- “What she needs is a good lay . If she had someone to rock her world on a regular basis, she wouldn't be such a raging bit—”
- (Charles Dickens)
Synonyms
* (casual sexual partner) see also .Derived terms
* lay of the landEtymology 3
From (etyl) laie, lawe, from (etyl) .Etymology 4
From (etyl)Adjective
(en adjective)- They seemed more lay than clerical.
- a lay''' preacher; a '''lay brother
Etymology 5
: See lieVerb
(head)- The baby lay in its crib and slept silently.
- Lay', lady, '''lay'''. / ' Lay across my big brass bed.
- Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters / Where the ragged people go
- Let me lay down beside you. / Let me always be with you.
Derived terms
* layaboutEtymology 6
From (etyl) lay, from (etyl) . See lake.Noun
(en noun)- 1805' ''The '''Lay of the Last Minstrel , Sir Walter Scott.
Derived terms
* layoffEtymology 7
Etymology 8
Noun
(en noun)- many goodly lays
- They bound themselves by a sacred lay and oath.
