forelay

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From fore- +‎ lay.

Verb

forelay (third-person singular simple present forelays, present participle forelaying, simple past and past participle forelaid)

1. To lay down beforehand

   These grounds being forelaid and understood. — Mede.

   I shall, before I instance, only forelay this That we must consider ... — The Whole Works of the Rev. John Howe, M.A. with a Memoir of the Author. Vol. VI., 1822

2. To waylay

   Again Lavis heard him: "You thought to forelay me, eh -- and breed panic above?” — James B. Connally, Sonnie-Boy's People, 1913

3. To plan; contrive in advance

   You folks had better forelay to come aboard by then. — Charles Neville Buck, The Tyranny of Weakness, 1917

Etymology 2

Verb

forelay

1. simple past tense of forelie

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for forelay in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)