Word definition: lay

Etimology

From Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with West Frisian lizze (“to lay, to lie”), Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Norwegian Bokmål legge (“to lay”), Norwegian Nynorsk leggja (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).

verb

Examples

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.

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 and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.

Synonyms: becalm, settle down

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?

He faced the spectres of the mindAnd laid them: thus he came at lengthTo find a stronger faith his own;And Power was with him in the night,Which makes the darkness and the light,And dwells not in the light alone,But in the darkness and the cloud

Tessie lay among the cushions, her face a gray blot in the gloom, but her hands were clasped in mine and I knew that she knew and read my thoughts as I read hers, for we had understood the mystery of the Hyades and the Phantom of Truth was laid.

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

the hen laid an egg

Did dinosaurs lay their eggs in a nest?

I'll lay that he doesn't turn up on Monday.

I dare lay mine honour / He will remain so.

He laid a hundred guineas with the laird of Slofferfield that he would drive four horses through the Slofferfield loch, and in the prank he had his bit chariot dung to pieces and a good mare killed.

to get laid

Synonyms: lie by, lie with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

'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 the venue

to lay a gun

to lay a cable or rope

The news article laid emphasis on the unusually young age of the criminals.

She layeth her hands to the spindle.

to lay a tax on land

The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Synonyms: ascribe, attribute

God layeth not folly to them.

Lay the fault on us.

to lay an indictment in a particular county

I have laid the facts of the matter before you.

to lay forward;  to lay aloft

I found him laying on the floor.

If ever there was a perfect beauty afloat, she is one; and there she lays at Spithead, and anybody in England would take her for an eight-and-twenty. I was upon the platform two hours this afternoon, looking at her. She lays just astern of the Endymion, with the Cleopatra to larboard.

Lay, lady, lay. / Lay across my big brass bed.

Let me lay down beside you. / Let me always be with you.

noun

Examples

He spoke of a flower or tree in each of the fifteen poems. A simple shape, a color, the design of a hedge, the lay of a limb inspired him in these songs to and about his loves.

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.

Over the years she'd tried to tell himself that his uptown girl was just another lay.

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.

“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?

Listening to this dismissal of his work, [Tennessee] Williams thought to himself of Wilder, “This character has never had a good lay.”

Does his make-up in his roomDouse himself with cheap perfumeEyeholes in a paper bagGreatest lay I ever had

[…] 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.

“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—”

I shall be on that lay nae mair

Since our people have moved this boy on, and he's not to be found on his old lay

"Well, you see, son," Kitcell had explained to Wilbur, "os-ten-siblee we are after shark-liver oil— and so we are; but also we are on any lay that turns up; ready for any game, from wrecking to barratry.

The hens are off the lay at present.

[…] lay in the bottom of an earthen pot some dried vine leaves, and so make a lay of Pears, and leaves till the pot is filled up, laying betwixt each lay some sliced Ginger […]

[…] the whole Body of the Church is chequer’d with different Lays of White and Black Marble […]

[…] when we examine the Scarf-Skin with a Microscope, it appears to be made up of several Lays of exceeding small Scales, which cover one another more or less […]

[…] in one particular it exceeds the fen birds, for it has two tastes; it being brown and white meat: under a lay of brown is a lay of white meat […]

On this lay or ground we should also add the finishing colours.

In the first MacColl patent the pattern chain and engaging rod were carried on the swinging lay on which the needle bars are mounted.

FIDLAM BENS. Thieves who have no particular lay, whose every finger is a fish-hook; fellows that will steal any thing they can remove.

Because I've finished, missus. Finished with the thieving lay now and forever.

Related words

Etimology

From Middle English laie, lawe, from Old English lagu (“sea, flood, water, ocean”), from Proto-West Germanic *lagu (“water, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *laguz (“water, sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“water, body of water, lake”). Cognate with Icelandic lögur (“liquid, fluid, lake”), Latin lacus (“lake, hollow, hole”).

noun

Etimology

From Middle English lay, from Old French lai, from Latin laicus, from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laïkós). Doublet of laic.

adjective

Examples

They seemed more lay than clerical.

a lay preacher; a lay brother

It is true that in adopting the short view many of the younger economists have not merely taken over the lay notions bodily.

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.

a lay suit

Etimology

See lie. This word was influenced by the present tense verb lay.

verb

Examples

The baby lay in its crib and slept silently.

But unlike many other tunnels that lay idle and decaying, Catesby has now found a new use as an aerodynamic wind tunnel for the motor industry.

Etimology

From Middle English lay, from Old French lai (“song, lyric, poem”), from Frankish *laih (“play, melody, song”), from Proto-Germanic *laikaz, *laikiz (“jump, play, dance, hymn”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“to jump, spring, play”). Akin to Old High German leih (“a play, skit, melody, song”), Middle High German leich (“piece of music, epic song played on a harp”), Old English lācan (“to move quickly, fence, sing”). See lake (“to play”).

noun

Examples

I strive, with wakeful melody, to cheerThe sullen gloom, sweet Philomel! like thee,And call the stars to listen: every starIs deaf to mine, enamour'd of thy lay.

Sad is the note and sad the lay, but mirth we meet not every day.

Etimology

From Middle English lay, laye, laiȝe, leyȝe, from Old English lǣh, lēh, northern (Anglian) variants of Old English lēah (“lea”). More at lea.

noun

Examples

Having destroyed all old lays, I have no other hay than clover.

Etimology

From Middle English laige, læȝe, variants of Middle English lawe (“law”). More at law.

noun

Examples

A woman worthy of immortall prayse, / Which for this Realme found many goodly layes

they bound themselues by a sacred lay and oth to fight it out to the last man

Etimology

Calque of Yiddish לייגן (leygn, “to put, lay”).

verb