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Lay vs Secular - What's the difference?

lay | secular |

As a proper noun lay

is a river in western france.

As an adjective secular is

not specifically religious.

As a noun secular is

a secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.

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 ----

    secular

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not specifically religious.
  • Temporal; something that is worldly or otherwise not based on something timeless.
  • (Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.
    • secular clergy in Catholicism
  • Happening once in an age or century.
    • The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.
  • Continuing over a long period of time, long-term.
    • The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.
    ''on a secular basis
  • * 2006 , The Economist, Economics focus: Dividing the pie
    • The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.
  • (literary) Centuries-old, ancient.
  • * 1899 ,
    • The long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings.
  • (astrophysics) Of or pertaining to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion.
  • (atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.
  • * 2000 , S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy'', in ''New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539
    • The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ?? and ?? are derived from eqn.(21) by ...

    Synonyms

    * (not religious) worldly

    Antonyms

    * nonsecular * (not religious) religious * (not religious) sacred (used especially of music) * (not bound by monastic vows) monastic * (not bound by monastic vows) regular (as regular clergy in Catholicism) * eternal, everlasting * frequent * unpredictable * non-recurring * (finance) short-term * (finance) cyclical

    References

    * Webster's English Dictionary

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
    • (Burke)
  • A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
    • (Busby)
  • A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.

    • Anagrams

    * ----