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)).

Verb

To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.

* , chapter=17

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}

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

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, 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

(ambitransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.

* (Bible), (Psalms) xxxvii. 21

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= T time , passage=Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.}}

To be profitable for.

To give (something else than money).

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

not paying me a welcome

*

They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

To be profitable or worth the effort.

To discharge an obligation or debt.

To suffer consequences.

Verb

(en verb)

(nautical) To cover (the bottom of a vessel, a seam, a spar, etc.) with tar or pitch, or a waterproof composition of tallow, resin, etc.; to smear.