lay out

English

Etymology

to lay + out

Verb

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

1. to expend
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. X, Government

     There are but two ways of paying debt: increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying it out.

2. to arrange in a certain way
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 230b.

     Because his opinions are all over the place, they find it easy to scrutinise them and lay them out;

3. (transitive) to concoct; think up
   • 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VII

     It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise. I made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.

Translations

to arrange in a certain way

Spanish: ordenar (es), organizar (es)

Related terms

• layout

Anagrams

• outlay