laid
/leɪd/
laid is the simple past and past participle of lay.
laid is the simple past and past participle of lie.
Meaning of lay
Verb
lay (third-person singular simple present lays, present participle laying, simple past and past participle laid)
- To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
- to lay a book on the table; to lay a body in the grave
- To cause to subside or abate.
- The cloudes, as things affrayd, before him flye; / But all so soone as his outrageous powre / Is layd, they fiercely then begin to shoure […]1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book II, canto viii, verse xlviii
- Synonyms:
- becalm, settle down
- To compel a supernatural entity to cease haunting a place, often by ritual or prayer; to exorcise or banish (a spirit or ghost).
- They were resolved to banish him if they could, and the spirit, who seemed to have an inkling of their design, was often heard singing in a melancholy tone:
Wae's me! wae's me!
The acorn is not yet
Fallen from the tree,
That's to grow the wood,
That's to make the cradle,
That's to rock the...1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 296
- They were resolved to banish him if they could, and the spirit, who seemed to have an inkling of their design, was often heard singing in a melancholy tone:
- To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).
- Even when I lay a long plan, it is never in the expectation that I will live to see it fulfilled.2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 48
- To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
- lay brick; lay flooring
- To produce and deposit (an egg or eggs).
- The hen laid an egg.
Meaning of lie
Verb
lie (third-person singular simple present lies, present participle lying, simple past lay or (colloquial) laid, past participle lain or (colloquial) laid or (obsolete) lien)
- To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
- The book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin.
- To be placed or situated.
- Ying-yang county lies 70 li southwest of the modern Teng-feng county, Honan.1988, Robin D. S. Yates, “Selected Translations”, in Washing Silk: The Life and Selected Poetry of Wei Chuang (834?-910), Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 100
- To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
- to lie waste; to lie fallow; to lie open; to lie hidden; to lie grieving; to lie under one's displeasure; to lie at the mercy of the waves
- Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
- Envy lies between beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances.c. 1690, Jeremy Collier, Of Envy
- Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
- And it came to passe after these things, that his masters wife cast her eyes vpon Ioseph, and shee said, Lie with me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 39:7
- Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
Adjective
laid (not comparable)
Proper noun capitalized: Laid
Laid
- A surname.
Synonyms of laid
Origin of laid
* As an English surname, from Middle English lade (“river crossing”), from Old English gelād, from lād (“canal, watercourse”). * As an Estonian surname, from the noun laid (“holm, islet”).
Words formed from laid
Phrases with laid
- laid by
- laid in
- laid on
- laid to
- laid up
- dry laid
- got laid
- laid for
- laid low
- laid off
- laid out
- gets laid
70 more phrasesFewer phrases
- laid away
- laid back
- laid bare
- laid down
- laid eggs
- laid into
- laid odds
- laid open
- laid over
- laid pipe
- laid about
- laid aside
- laid claim
- laid it on
- laid ropes
- laid siege
- laid waste
- gotten laid
- laid an egg
- laid behind
- laid chilly
- laid rubber
- laid tracks
- getting laid
- laid down on
- laid eyes on
- laid hold on
- laid to rest
- laid up with
- laid hands on
- laid in ashes
- laid one down
- laid store by
- laid the dust
- laid to heart
- best laid plan
- laid a hand on
- laid down arms
- laid hold upon
- laid the table
- best laid plans
- laid a glove on
- laid a finger on
- laid in lavender
- laid it on thick
- laid on the line
- laid by the heels
- laid down the law
- laid some skin on
- laid one's account
- laid one's eyes on
- laid one's hands on
- laid the groundwork
- laid the smack down
- laid up in lavender
- laid down one's arms
- laid down one's life
- laid down the marker
- laid the hammer down
- laid on with a trowel
- laid at someone's door
- laid down one's weapons
- laid salt on someone's tail
- laid something at the door of
- laid something at the feet of
- laid an anchor to the windward
- a wild goose never laid a tame egg
- killed the goose that laid the golden eggs
- the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray
- the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry
Words that rhyme with laid
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- abraid
- blockade
- cade
- fade
- glade
- raid
- upbraid
- abrade
- crusade
- esplanade
- invade
- lade
- unlaid
- upgrade
- brigade
- brocade
- cavalcade
- colonnade
- displayed
- glissade
- grenade
- paid
- palisade
- unlade
- afraid
- ambuscade
- arcade
- corrade
- degrade
- enfilade
- evade
- jade
- lemonade
- made
- maid
- persuade
- pomade
- spade
- unmade
- aide
- cannonade
- carbonade
- carronade
- clade
- cockade
- Dade
- decayed
- dragonnade
Questions about laid
- What does laid mean?
- Laid means marked with parallel lines, as if ribbed, from wires in the mould.
- What is laid the simple past and past participle of?
- Laid is the simple past and past participle of lay.
- What part of speech is laid?
- Laid can be an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce laid?
- Laid is pronounced /leɪd/.
Words near laid in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: laid (page history and authors); Laid (page history and authors); lay (page history and authors); lie (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-laid.ogg.
Cite this entry: “laid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.