Lay

/leɪ/ · verb

Meaning

To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position..

Definitions by Sense

1. To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
2. To cause to subside or abate.
3. To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).
4. To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
5. To produce and deposit (an egg or eggs).
6. To bet (that something is or is not the case).
7. To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
8. To have sex with.

Example Sentences

to lay a book on the table; to lay a body in the grave

A shower of rain lays the dust.

A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den.

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.

He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him.

An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.

The cloudes, as things affrayd, before him flye; / But all so soone as his outrageous powre / Is layd, they fiercely then begin to shoure […]

But how upon the winds being laid, doth the ship cease to move?

Synonyms for lay

Antonyms for lay

Related Words

Word Forms

• lays
• laying
• laid
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• lay
• layest
• laidst
• laidest
• layeth
• -
• more lay
• most lay
• lai

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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