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Full vs Lay - What's the difference?

full | lay |

As an adjective full

is foul, rotten.

As a proper noun lay is

a river in western france.

full

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) full, from (etyl) . Germanic cognates include West Frisian fol, Low German vull, Dutch vol, German voll, Danish fuld, and Swedish and Norwegian .

Adjective

(er)
  • Containing the maximum possible amount of that which can fit in the space available.
  • *
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage='Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.}}
  • Complete; with nothing omitted.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
  • Total, entire.
  • (informal) Having eaten to satisfaction, having a "full" stomach; replete.
  • Of a garment, of a size that is ample, wide, or having ample folds or pleats to be comfortable.
  • Having depth and body; rich.
    • a full singing voice
  • (obsolete) Having the mind filled with ideas; stocked with knowledge; stored with information.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Reading maketh a full man.
  • Having the attention, thoughts, etc., absorbed in any matter, and the feelings more or less excited by it.
    • She's full of her latest project.
  • * John Locke
    • Everyone is full of the miracles done by cold baths on decayed and weak constitutions.
  • Filled with emotions.
  • * Lowell
    • The heart is so full that a drop overfills it.
  • (obsolete) Impregnated; made pregnant.
  • * Dryden
    • Ilia, the fair, full of Mars.
    Synonyms
    * (containing the maximum possible amount) abounding, brimful, bursting, chock-a-block, chock-full, full up, full to bursting, full to overflowing, jam full, jammed, jam-packed, laden, loaded, overflowing, packed, rammed, stuffed * (complete) complete, thorough * (total) entire, total * glutted, gorged, sated, satiate, satiated, satisfied, stuffed * (of a garment) baggy, big, large, loose, outsized, oversized, voluminous
    Antonyms
    * (containing the maximum possible amount) empty * (complete) incomplete * (total) partial * empty, hungry, starving * (of a garment) close-fitting, small, tight, tight-fitting
    Derived terms
    * full as a goog * full as a tick * full beam * fullblood, full-blood, full blood * full-blown * full-bodied * full-dress * full house * fully * full marks * full moon * full name * fullness * fullscale * full stop * to the full
    Related terms
    * fill * -ful * fulfil

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (lb) Quite; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:master of a full poor cell
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:full in the centre of the sacred wood
  • *1819 , (John Keats), Otho the Great , Act IV, Scene I, verse 112
  • *:You know full well what makes me look so pale.
  • *(rfdate) (Dante Gabriel Rosetti), William Blake , lines 9-12
  • *:This cupboard/ this other one, / His true wife's charge, full oft to their abode / Yielded for daily bread the martyr's stone,
  • *1874 , , (The City of Dreadful Night) , IX
  • *:It is full strange to him who hears and feels, / When wandering there in some deserted street, / The booming and the jar of ponderous wheels,
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes..
    • Derived terms
    * full well

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fulle, fylle, fille, from (etyl) fyllu, . More at fill.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Utmost measure or extent; highest state or degree; the state, position, or moment of fullness; fill.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The swan's-down feather, / That stands upon the swell at full of tide.
  • * Dryden
    • Sicilian tortures and the brazen bull, / Are emblems, rather than express the full / Of what he feels.
    I was fed to the full .
  • * 1911 , Berthold Auerbach, Bayard Taylor, The villa on the Rhine :
    • he had tasted their food, and found it so palatable that he had eaten his full before he knew it.
  • * 2008 , Jay Cassell, The Gigantic Book Of Hunting Stories :
    • Early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his full at it during the night.
  • * 2010 , C. E. Morgan, All the Living: A Novel :
    • When he had eaten his full , they set to work again.
  • (of the moon) The phase of the moon when it is entire face is illuminated, full moon.
  • * 1765 , Francis Bacon, The works of Francis Bacon :
    • It is like, that the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the moon: [...]
  • * 1808 , (editor), Works , Volume VII: Practical Works, Revised edition, page 219,
    • This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses, while the shadow of this sinful mass hides her beauty from the world.
  • (label) an aerialist maneuver consisting of a backflip in conjunction and simultaneous with a complete twist
    • Derived terms
    * at full, at the full * in full * to the full (freestyle skiing) * double full * lay-full * full-full * full-double full * double full-full * lay-full-full * full-full-full * lay-double full-full * full-double full-full

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of the moon) To become full or wholly illuminated.
  • * 1888 September 20, " The Harvest Moon," New York Times (retrieved 10 April 2013):
    • The September moon fulls on the 20th at 24 minutes past midnight, and is called the harvest moon.
  • * 1905 , , The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation , ch. 4:
    • "By the black cave of Atropos, when the moon fulls , keep thy tryst!"
  • * 1918 , , The Story Of Waitstill Baxter , ch. 29:
    • "The moon fulls to-night, don't it?"

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) fullen, fulwen, from (etyl) fullian, .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To baptise.
    • Derived terms
    * fulling

    Etymology 4

    (etyl), from (etyl) fuller,

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to waulk, walk
    • Synonyms
    * to walk, waulk
    Derived terms
    * fuller * fuller's earth

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    lay

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) layen, leggen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (label) To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
    • to lay''' a book on the table;   to '''lay a body in the grave
    A shower of rain lays the dust.
  • * Bible, (w) vi. 17
    • A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den.
  • * 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:
    • 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.
  • *
    • , 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:
    • The cloudes, as things affrayd, before him flye; / But all so soone as his outrageous powre / Is layd , they fiercely then begin to shoure
  • * 1662 , , Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems , Dialogue 2:
    • But how upon the winds being laid , doth the ship cease to move?
  • (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:
    • Even when I lay a long plan, it is never in the expectation that I will live to see it fulfilled.
  • (label) To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
    • lay''' brick;  '''lay flooring
  • (label) To produce and deposit an egg.
  • (label) To bet (that something is or is not the case).
    • I'll lay that he doesn't turn up on Monday.
  • (label) To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • I dare lay mine honour / He will remain so.
  • To have sex with.
  • * 1944 , (Raymond Chandler), The Lady in the Lake , Penguin 2011, p. 11:
    • ‘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.’
  • (label) To take a position; to come or go.
    • to lay''' forward;  to '''lay aloft
  • (label) To state; to allege.
    • to lay the venue
    (Bouvier)
  • (label) To point; to aim.
    • to lay a gun
  • (label) To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them.
    • to lay a cable or rope
  • (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
    • She layeth her hands to the spindle.
  • To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.).
    • to lay a tax on land
  • * Bible, (w) liii. 6
    • The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
  • To impute; to charge; to allege.
  • * Bible, (w) xxiv. 12
    • God layeth not folly to them.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Lay the fault on us.
  • To present or offer.
    • to lay''' an indictment in a particular county;   to '''lay a scheme before one
    (Webster 1913)
    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 laid

    References

    *

    Etymology 2

    From the verb.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Arrangement or relationship; layout.
    • the lay of the land
  • A share of the profits in a business.
  • * 1851 ,
    • 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.
  • The direction a rope is twisted.
    • Worm and parcel with the lay ; turn and serve the other way.
  • (colloquial) A casual sexual partner.
  • * 1996 , JoAnn Ross, Southern Comforts , MIRA (1996), ISBN 9780778315254, page 166:
    • Over the years she'd tried to tell himself that his uptown girl was just another lay .
  • * 2000 , R. J. Kaiser, Fruitcake , MIRA (2000), ISBN 1551666251, 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.
  • * 2011 , Kelly Meding, Trance , Pocket Books (2011), ISBN 9781451620924, 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?
  • (colloquial) An act of sexual intercourse.
  • * 1993 , David Halberstam, The Fifties , Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ISBN 9781453286074, unnumbered page:
    • Listening to this dismissal of his work, [Tennessee] Williams thought to himself of Wilder, “This character has never had a good lay .”
  • * 2009 , Fern Michaels, The Scoop , Kensington Books (2009), ISBN 9780758227188, 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.
  • * 2011 , Pamela Yaye, Promises We Make , Kimani Press (2011), ISBN 9780373861996, 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—”
  • (slang, archaic) A plan; a scheme.
    • (Charles Dickens)
    Synonyms
    * (casual sexual partner) see also .
    Derived terms
    * lay of the land

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) laie, lawe, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A lake.

    • Etymology 4

    From (etyl)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • 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.
    • They seemed more lay than clerical.
    a lay''' preacher; a '''lay brother
  • (obsolete) Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.
    • Related terms
    * laity * layman * layperson * lay person * laywoman

    Etymology 5

    : See lie

    Verb

    (head)
  • (lie) when pertaining to position.
    • The baby lay in its crib and slept silently.
  • (proscribed) To be in a horizontal position; to lie (from confusion with lie).
  • * 1969' July, Bob Dylan, “'''Lay''' Lady '''Lay ”, ''Nashville Skyline , Columbia:
    • Lay', lady, '''lay'''. / ' Lay across my big brass bed.
  • * a.'' 1970 , Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”, ''Bridge over Troubled Water , Columbia Records:
    • Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters / Where the ragged people go
  • * 1974 , John Denver, “Annie’s Song”, Back Home Again , RCA:
    • Let me lay down beside you. / Let me always be with you.
    Derived terms
    * layabout

    Etymology 6

    From (etyl) lay, from (etyl) . See lake.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A ballad or sung poem; a short poem or narrative, usually intended to be sung.
    • 1805' ''The '''Lay of the Last Minstrel , Sir Walter Scott.
    Derived terms
    * layoff

    Etymology 7

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A meadow; a lea.
    • (Dryden)

    Etymology 8

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A law.
  • * Spenser
    • many goodly lays
  • (obsolete) An obligation; a vow.
  • * Holland
    • They bound themselves by a sacred lay and oath.

    Etymology 9

    .

    Verb

  • To don (put on) (tefillin (gloss)).

    • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English causative verbs English irregular verbs English terms with multiple etymologies English three-letter words ----