Word.ws English Dictionary

lain by

lain by is the past participle of lie by.

Meaning of lie by

Verb

lie by (third-person singular simple present lies by, present participle lying by, simple past lay by, past participle lain by)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To have sex with.
    • Than he lete make a cry thorow all the oste that uppon layne of lyff and lymme […] that no lyege man that longyth to his oste sholde lye be no maydens ne ladyes nother no burgessis wyff that to the cité longis., Book V
    Synonyms:
    lie with
  2. (dated, intransitive) To rest from labour; to take a break.
    Synonyms:
    have a break, take five

Questions about lain by

What is lain by the past participle of?
Lain by is the past participle of lie by.

Words near lain by in the dictionary

  1. lain at someone's heart
  2. lain back
  3. lain back and thought of England
  4. lain before
  5. lain behind
  6. lain by
  7. lain doggo
  8. lain down
  9. lain down on the job
  10. lain hands on
  11. lain ill in one's mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lain by (page history and authors); lie by (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: “lain by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lain_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.