lay
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology 1 [edit]
From Middle English layen, leggen, from Old English lecgan (“to lay”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, *legjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).
Verb [edit]
lay (third-person singular simple present lays, present participle laying, simple past and past participle laid)
- (transitive) To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
- 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.
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- A corresponding intransitive version of this word is lie
- 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:
- (transitive, archaic) 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, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, Dialogue 2:
- But how upon the winds being laid, doth the ship cease to move?
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:
- (transitive) To leave something somewhere.
- (transitive) 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.
- 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador 2007, p. 48:
- (transitive) To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
- lay brick
- lay flooring
- (transitive) To produce and deposit an egg.
- (transitive) To wager that an event will not take place.
- (transitive, slang) 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.’
- 1944, Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake, Penguin 2011, p. 11:
- (intransitive, nonstandard) to lie (be in a horizontal or resting position)
- (nautical) To take a position; to come or go.
- to lay forward; to lay aloft
Antonyms [edit]
- (wager on an event): back
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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References [edit]
- Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989
Etymology 2 [edit]
From the verb.
Noun [edit]
lay (plural lays)
- Arrangement or relationship; layout.
- A share of the profits in a business.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 16
- 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.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 16
- The direction a rope is twisted.
- (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?
- 1996, JoAnn Ross, Southern Comforts, MIRA (1996), ISBN 9780778315254, page 166:
- (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—”
- 1993, David Halberstam, The Fifties, Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ISBN 9781453286074, unnumbered page:
- (nonstandard or colloquial) the lay of the land (rather than the standard the lie of the land)
Synonyms [edit]
- (casual sexual partner): see also Wikisaurus:casual sexual partner.
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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Etymology 3 [edit]
From Middle English laie, lawe, from Old English lagu (“sea, flood, water, ocean”), from Proto-Germanic *laguz (“water, sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *lakw- (“water, body of water, lake”). Cognate with Icelandic lögur (“liquid, fluid, lake”), Latin lacus (“lake, hollow, hole”).
Noun [edit]
lay (plural lays)
- A lake.
Etymology 4 [edit]
From Old French lai
Adjective [edit]
lay (comparative more lay, superlative most lay)
- Non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:
- 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.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:
- Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them.
- They seemed more lay than clerical.
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Etymology 5 [edit]
- See lie
Verb [edit]
lay
- Simple past of 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.
- 1969 July, Bob Dylan, “Lay Lady Lay”, Nashville Skyline, Columbia:
Derived terms [edit]
Etymology 6 [edit]
From Middle English lay, from Old French lai (“song, lyric, poem”), from Frankish *laik, *laih (“play, melody, song”), from Proto-Germanic *laikaz, *laikiz (“jump, play, dance, hymn”), from Proto-Indo-European *loig-, *(e)laiǵ- (“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.
Noun [edit]
lay (plural lays)
- 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.
Translations [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Etymology 7 [edit]
Noun [edit]
lay (plural lays)
- (obsolete) A meadow; a lea.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
Statistics [edit]
Anagrams [edit]
Malagasy [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Common Malayo-Polynesian, compare Indonesian layar
Noun [edit]
lay
- English terms with homophones
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English verbs
- English archaic terms
- English slang
- English nonstandard terms
- en:Nautical
- English nouns
- English colloquialisms
- English terms derived from Old French
- English adjectives
- English simple past forms
- English disputed terms
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English irregular verbs
- English terms with multiple etymologies
- Malagasy nouns