lay

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See also láy

Contents

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)

  1. (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.
    A corresponding intransitive version of this word is lie
  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.
    • 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.’
  9. (intransitive, nonstandard) to lie (be in a horizontal or resting position)
  10. (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]
Terms derived from lay
Translations [edit]
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

References [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

From the verb.

Noun [edit]

lay (plural lays)

  1. Arrangement or relationship; layout.
  2. 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.
  3. The direction a rope is twisted.
    Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
  4. (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?
  5. (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—”
  6. (nonstandard or colloquial) the lay of the land (rather than the standard the lie of the land)
Synonyms [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
arrangement or relationship
direction a rope is twisted
casual sexual partner

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)

  1. A lake.

Etymology 4 [edit]

From Old French lai

Adjective [edit]

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.
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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

Etymology 5 [edit]

See lie

Verb [edit]

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 (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.
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)

  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.
Translations [edit]
sung poem

Derived terms [edit]

Etymology 7 [edit]

Noun [edit]

lay (plural lays)

  1. (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

  1. sail
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