Word.ws English Dictionary

laid to

laid to is the simple past and past participle of lay to.

Meaning of lay to

Verb

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

  1. To turn towards the wind so that the boat stops; to remain stationary in open water or to lie to.
    • Hoisting our jib, we lay to, and in the morning found ourselves only a few miles from the island, but with such a steady wind blowing from its direction as to render it impossible for us to get back to it.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 334
  2. To try or to expend effort to achieve (something).
    • The rowing team laid to their oars.

Questions about laid to

What is laid to the simple past and past participle of?
Laid to is the simple past and past participle of lay to.

Words near laid to in the dictionary

  1. laid the dust
  2. laid the groundwork
  3. laid the hammer down
  4. laid the smack down
  5. laid the table
  6. laid to
  7. laid to heart
  8. laid to rest
  9. laid tracks
  10. laid up
  11. laid up in lavender

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laid to (page history and authors); lay to (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.

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Cite this entry: “laid to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laid_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.