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 put (something) down, to rest.

To attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place.

I have set my heart on running the marathon.

* Bible, Genesis iv. 15

The Lord set a mark upon Cain.

To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.

* Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 1

The Lord thy God will set thee on high.

* Bible, Matthew x. 35

I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.

* Coleridge

Every incident sets him thinking.

(dated) To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot.

to set a coach in the mud

To determine or settle.

To adjust.

To punch (a nail) into wood so that its head is below the surface.

To arrange with dishes and cutlery.

To introduce or describe.

*

An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.

To locate (a play, etc.); to assign a backdrop to.

To compile, to make (a puzzle or challenge).

This crossword was set by Araucaria.

To prepare (a stage or film set).

To fit (someone) up in a situation.

To arrange (type).

To devise and assign (work) to.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting .}}

(volleyball) To direct (the ball) to a teammate for an attack.

To solidify.

To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle.

to set milk for cheese

Of a heavenly body, to disappear below the horizon of a planet, etc, as the latter rotates.

(bridge) To defeat a contract.

To begin to move; to go forth.

* c. 1599 , (William Shakespeare),

The king is set from London, and the scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton

(of fruit) To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form.

* 1906 , Canada. Dept. of Agriculture. Fruit Branch, Fruit crop report

In the Annapolis Valley, in spite of an irregular bloom, the fruit has set well and has, as yet, been little affected by scab.

(intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) To sit (be in a seated position).

* , chapter=7

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.}}

To hunt game with the aid of a setter.

(hunting, ambitransitive) Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.

The dog sets the bird.

Your dog sets well.

(obsolete) To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly; to set out.

* Hammond

If he sets industriously and sincerely to perform the commands of Christ, he can have no ground of doubting but it shall prove successful to him.

(ambitransitive) To fit music to words.

* Dryden

Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.

(Shakespeare)

(ambitransitive) To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.

to set pear trees in an orchard

* Old proverb

Sow dry, and set wet.

To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.

(Francis Bacon)

To have a certain direction of motion; to flow; to move on; to tend.

The current sets''' to the north; the tide '''sets to the windward.

To place or fix in a setting.

to set a precious stone in a border of metal

to set glass in a sash

* Dryden

And him too rich a jewel to be set / In vulgar metal for a vulgar use.

To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare.

to set (that is, to hone) a razor

to set a saw

To extend and bring into position; to spread.

to set the sails of a ship

To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote.

to set a psalm

(Fielding)

To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.

to set a broken bone

(masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.

(obsolete) To wager in gambling; to risk.

* Shakespeare

I have set my life upon a cast, / And I will stand the hazard of the die.

To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.

* Dryden

High on their heads, with jewels richly set , / Each lady wore a radiant coronet.

* Wordsworth

pastoral dales thin set with modern farms

(obsolete) To value; to rate; used with at .

* Shakespeare

Be you contented, wearing now the garland, / To have a son set your decrees at naught.

* Shakespeare

I do not set my life at a pin's fee.

To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign.

to set''' a good example; to '''set lessons to be learned

(Scotland) To suit; to become.

It sets him ill.

Verb

To divide a class group in a subject according to ability

* 2008 , Patricia Murphy, ?Robert McCormick, Knowledge and Practice: Representations and Identities

*:In setted' classes, students are brought together because they are believed to be of similar 'ability'. Yet, '''setted lessons are often conducted as though students are not only similar, but ''identical —in terms of ability, preferred learning style and pace of working.

* 2002 , Jo Boaler, Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches and Their Impact on Student Learning

*:At Amber Hill, setting was a high-profile concept, and the students were frequently reminded of the set to which they belonged.