Lay vs Let - What's the difference?
lay | let |
(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)).
(label) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without (to)).
:
*(Bible), (w) viii. 28
*:Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is
*1971 , , (The Tombs of Atuan)
*:He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To leave.
:
*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets .
(label) To allow the release of (a fluid).
:
(label) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
:
(label) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out .
:
(label)
:
:
:
:
To cause (+ bare infinitive).
:
*:
*1818 , (John Keats), "To—":
*:Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand.
(archaic) To hinder, prevent; to obstruct (someone or something).
* Bible, 2. Thessalonians ii. 7
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To prevent or obstruct (to) do something, or (that) something happen.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts VIII:
An obstacle or hindrance.
*, II.16:
*:Paulus Emilius'' going to the glorious expedition of ''Macedon'', advertised the people of ''Rome'' during his absence not to speake of his actions: ''For the licence of judgements is an especiall let in great affaires.
*Latimer
*:Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.
(tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.
As a proper noun lay
is a river in western france.As a noun let is
milk or let can be letter.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
*let
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) leten, .Verb
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",
- Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost / and salewed the peple and the kyng / and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde / Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne / And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij kny?tes of the table round in their pauelions
Synonyms
* (to allow) allow, permitUsage notes
The use of "let" to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative , in the sense of "to allow". For example, the sentence "Let me go to the store." could either be a second-person imperative of "let" (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of "go" (not implying any such preventer).Etymology 2
(etyl) . More at late, delay.Verb
- He who now letteth' will ' let , until he be taken out of the way.
- Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, / And lets me from the saddle.
- And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?