Lay vs Give - What's the difference?
lay | give | Synonyms |
(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)).
(may take two objects) To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere.
# To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
# To make a present or gift of.
# To pledge.
# To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.
# To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in.
# To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).
#*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway,
# To pass (something) into (someone's) hand or the like.
# To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.
#* 1699 , ,
(may take two objects) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).
To yield slightly when a force is applied.
*
To collapse under pressure or force.
To provide, as, a service or a broadcast.
* 2003 , Iain Aitken, Value-Driven IT Management: Commercializing the IT Function , page 153
* 2006 , Christopher Matthew Spencer The Ebay Entrepreneur , page 248
To lead (onto or into).
To exhibit as a product or result; to produce; to yield.
To cause; to make; used with the infinitive.
* Shakespeare
To allow or admit by way of supposition.
* Milton
To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.
* Sheridan
To communicate or announce (advice, tidings, etc.); to pronounce or utter (an opinion, a judgment, a shout, etc.).
(dated) To grant power or permission to; to allow.
* Rowe
* Alexander Pope
(reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).
To become soft or moist.
To shed tears; to weep.
* Shakespeare
To have a misgiving.
* J. Webster
To be going on, to be occurring
(uncountable) The amount of bending that something undergoes when a force is applied to it.
In transitive terms the difference between lay and give
is that lay is to deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk while give is to provide, as, a service or a broadcast.As an adjective lay
is non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution.As a proper noun Lay
is a river in western France.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.
Etymology 9
.Verb
Statistics
*give
English
Verb
Heads designed for an essay on conversations
- Study gives' strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to '''give''' stiffness, the other suppleness: one ' gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
- who did not have a culture in which 'giving good presentation' and successfully playing the internal political game was the way up.
- A friendly voice on the phone welcoming prospective new clients is a must. Don't underestimate the importance of giving good "phone".
- The number of men, divided by the number of ships, gives four hundred to each ship.
- But there the duke was given to understand / That in a gondola were seen together / Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.
- I give not heaven for lost.
- I don't wonder at people's giving him to me as a lover.
- It is given me once again to behold my friend.
- Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine.
- The soldiers give themselves to plunder.
- That boy is given to fits of bad temper.
- (Francis Bacon)
- Whose eyes do never give / But through lust and laughter.
- My mind gives ye're reserved / To rob poor market women.
Synonyms
* (transfer possession of) donate, pass, transfer * (bend slightly when a force is applied) bend, cede, flex, move, yield * (estimate or predict) estimate, guess, predict * (provide)Antonyms
* (transfer possession of) get, obtain, receive, take * (bend slightly when a force is applied) not bend/cede/flex/give/move/yield, resistDerived terms
See also'' given''', '''giver''' ''and'' ' giving * forgive * * give and take * give away * give away the store * give back * give birth * give forth * give head * give in * give it one's all * give it one's best shot * give it up for * given * give off * give one's all * give one's daughter away * give on to * give or take * give out * give over * give pause * give someone a break * give someone a chance * give someone a kiss * give someone grief * give someone the business * give someone the time of day * give something a miss * give something a shot * give something a try * give thanks * give to understand * give up * give way * it is better to give than to receive * something's got to give * what gives? * you only get what you giveNoun
(-)- This chair doesn't have much give .