lay out
English
Etymology
Verb
lay out (third-person singular simple present lays out, present participle laying out, simple past and past participle laid out)
- (transitive) To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase.
- 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 63,[1]
- […] you must endeavour to take off your Mistress from all the care you can, giving to her a just and true account of what moneys you lay out for her, shewing your self thrifty in all your disbursements.
- 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.
- 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 63,[1]
- (transitive) To arrange in a certain way, so as to spread or space apart; to display (e.g. merchandise or a collection).
- She laid the blocks out in a circle on the floor.
- (transitive) To explain; to interpret.
- (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.
- 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VII
- To prepare a body for burial.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 28
- So that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever Captain Ahab should be tranquilly laid out— which might hardly come to pass, so he muttered—then, whoever should do that last office for the dead, would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 6
- The family was alone in the parlour with the great polished box. William, when laid out, was six feet four inches long. Like a monument lay the bright brown, ponderous coffin.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 28
- (transitive, colloquial) To render (someone) unconscious; to knock out; to cause to fall to the floor.
- (transitive, colloquial) To scold or berate.
- (intransitive, US, colloquial) To lie in the sunshine.
Related terms
Translations
to arrange in a certain way
to prepare a body before burial
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Anagrams
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- English lemmas
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- English phrasal verbs with particle (out)
- en:Burial