lay

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See also láy

Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

From Middle English layen, leggen, from Old English lecgan (“to lay”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjanan (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjanan, *legjanan (“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”).

[edit] Verb

lay (third-person singular simple present lays, present participle laying, simple past and past participle laid)

  1. (transitive) To place down in a position of rest.
    • 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.
  2. (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?
  3. (transitive) To leave something somewhere.
  4. (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.
  5. (transitive) To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
    lay brick
    lay flooring
  6. (transitive) To produce and deposit an egg.
  7. (transitive) To wager that an event will not take place.
  8. (transitive, slang) To have sex with.
[edit] Antonyms
  • (wager on an event): back
[edit] Derived terms
terms derived from lay
[edit] Translations
to place something down in a position of rest
archaic: to cause to subside or abate
to leave something somewhere
to prepare groundwork, table etc.
to install certain building materials
to deposit an egg
to wager that an event will not take place
to have sex with

[edit] References

[edit] Etymology 2

From the verb.

[edit] Noun

lay (plural lays)

  1. Arrangement or relationship; layout.
  2. The direction a rope is twisted.
    Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
  3. A casual sexual partner.
    What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest?
  4. (nonstandard or colloquial) the lay of the land (rather than the standard the lie of the land)
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
arrangement or relationship
direction a rope is twisted
casual sexual partner

[edit] Etymology 3

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”).

[edit] Noun

lay (plural lays)

  1. A lake.

[edit] Etymology 4

From Old French lai

[edit] Adjective

lay (comparative more lay, superlative most lay)

  1. 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.
  2. Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them.
    They seemed more lay than clerical.
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
non-professional
non-clergy
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.
Translations to be checked

[edit] Etymology 5

See lie

[edit] Verb

lay

  1. Simple past of lie when pertaining to position.
    The baby lay in its crib and slept silently.
  2. (proscribed) To be in a horizontal position; to 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.
[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Etymology 6

From Middle English lay, from Old French lai (“song, lyric, poem”), of Germanic origin, from Old 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.

[edit] Noun

lay (plural lays)

  1. 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.
[edit] Translations
sung poem

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Malagasy

[edit] Etymology

Common Malayo-Polynesian, compare Indonesian layar

[edit] Noun

lay

  1. sail
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