Verb

(en verb)

(nautical) To incline forward, aft, or to one side by means of stays.

stay a mast

(nautical) To tack; put on the other tack.

to stay ship

(nautical) To change; tack; go about; be in stays, as a ship.

Verb

(en verb)

To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.

To stop; detain; keep back; delay; hinder.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Your ships are stay'd at Venice.

* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

This business staid me in London almost a week.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new.

* (Bible), (w) xvii. 12

Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Sallows and reedsfor vineyards useful found / To stay thy vines.

To restrain; withhold; check; stop.

* (Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)

all that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false

To put off; defer; postpone; delay; keep back.

To hold the attention of.

To bear up under; to endure; to hold out against; to resist.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

She will not stay the siege of loving terms, / Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes.

To wait for; await.

To rest; depend; rely.

* (w) 30:12, (w)

Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I stay here on my bond.

To stop; come to a stand or standstill.

To come to an end; cease.

That day the storm stayed .

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Here my commission stays .

To dwell; linger; tarry; wait.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

I must stay a little on one action.

To make a stand; stand.

To hold out, as in a race or contest; last or persevere to the end.

That horse stays well.

To remain in a particular place, especially for an indefinite time; sojourn; abide.

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

She would command the hasty sun to stay .

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Stay , I command you; stay and hear me first.

* (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)

I stay a little longer, as one stays / To cover up the embers that still burn.

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.}}

To wait; rest in patience or expectation.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I'll tell thee all my whole device / When I am in my coach, which stays for us.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

The father cannot stay any longer for the fortune.

To wait as an attendant; give ceremonious or submissive attendance.

To continue to have a particular quality.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

The flames augment, and stay / At their full height, then languish to decay.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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",

To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.

* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute.

(obsolete) To remain for the purpose of; to wait for.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

I stay dinner there.

To cause to cease; to put an end to.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

Stay your strife.

* (Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)

For flattering planets seemed to say / This child should ills of ages stay .

To fasten or secure with stays.

to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler

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)

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.

Verb

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