Word.ws English Dictionary

lay

/leɪ/

lay verb: to place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position. Also the simple past of lie.

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive) 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
    • A shower of rain lays the dust.
  2. (archaic, transitive) 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
    • But how upon the winds being laid, doth the ship cease to move?1662, Sir Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, Dialogue 2
    Synonyms:
    becalm, settle down
  3. (transitive) 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
  4. (transitive) 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
  5. (transitive) To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
    • lay brick; lay flooring
  6. (transitive) To produce and deposit (an egg or eggs).
    • The hen laid an egg.
    • Did dinosaurs lay their eggs in a nest?
  7. (transitive) To bet (that something is or is not the case).
    • I'll lay that he doesn't turn up on Monday.
  8. (transitive) To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
    • I dare lay mine honour / He will remain so.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • He laid a hundred guineas with the laird of Slofferfield that he would drive four horses through the Slofferfield loch, and in the prank he had his bit chariot dung to pieces and a good mare killed.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
  9. (slang, transitive) To have sex with.
    • to get laid
    • 'It's because he's a no-good son of a bitch who thinks it is smart to lay his friends' wives and brag about it.'1944, Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake, Penguin, published 2011, page 11
    Synonyms:
    lie by, lie with, sleep with, Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague
  10. (transitive) To state; to allege.
    • to lay the venue
  11. (transitive) To point; to aim.
    • to lay a gun
  12. (transitive) To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them.
    • to lay a cable or rope
Show 10 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
  2. (transitive) To place (new type) properly in the cases.
  3. (transitive) To apply; to put.
    • The news article laid emphasis on the unusually young age of the criminals.
    • She layeth her hands to the spindle.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 31:19
  4. (transitive) To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.).
    • The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 53:6
    • to lay a tax on land
  5. (transitive) To impute; to charge; to allege.
    • God layeth not folly to them.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 24:12
    • Lay the fault on us.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  6. (transitive) To present or offer.
    • to lay an indictment in a particular county
    • I have laid the facts of the matter before you.
  7. (intransitive) To produce and deposit an egg or eggs.
    • It [the Houdan breed] bears confinement well, can be kept on any soil, is very hardy, lays well, its flesh is all that can be desired, and it is a nonsitter.1883, Stephen Beale [pseudonym; Edward Brown], “French”, in Profitable Poultry Keeping, London; New York, N.Y.: George Routledge and Sons, […], →OCLC, chapter X (The Breeds of Poultry), page 94
    • I never kill a pullet but keep to lay the next year.1901 May 24, Mrs. G. A. Gibbons (Journal of Agriculture), “Poultry and Bees: How to Make Chickens Pay”, in Edwards’ Fruit Grower & Farmer, volume XI, number 2, Missoula, Minn., →OCLC, page [7]...
  8. (intransitive) To subside or abate.
    • I believe the wind is laying and perhaps we will not have a snow. If it turns cold without snow, we can have the hog killed.1943, Amanda McDowell, Fiddles in the Cumberlands
    • ... the wind laid and Nature seemed to have recovered her good humor. The landscape smiled again, and we drove about a bit to see what the storm had done.2010 June 28, Roy Bedichek, Karánkaway Country, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 61
  9. (intransitive) To take a position; to come or go.
    • to lay forward; to lay aloft
    • If ever there was a perfect beauty afloat, she is one; and there she lays at Spithead, and anybody in England would take her for an eight-and-twenty. I was upon the platform two hours this afternoon, looking at her. She lays just astern of the Endymion, with the Cleopatra to larboard.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 151
  10. (intransitive, proscribed) To lie: to rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
    • I found him laying on the floor.
    • Lay, lady, lay. / Lay across my big brass bed.1969 July, Bob Dylan, “Lay Lady Lay”, in Nashville Skyline, Columbia

Noun (1)

lay (countable and uncountable, plural lays)

  1. Arrangement or relationship; layout.
    • He spoke of a flower or tree in each of the fifteen poems. A simple shape, a color, the design of a hedge, the lay of a limb inspired him in these songs to and about his loves.1977 August 20, Jim Marko, “Building A Gay Culture—An Evening of Poetry and Theatre”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 16
    • the lay of the land
  2. A share of the profits in a business.
    • While the Pequod lay at Nantucket, Peleg put Ishmael down for the three hundredth lay.
    • I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages; but all hands, including the captain, received certain shares of the profits called lays, and that these lays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 16”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
  3. The direction a rope is twisted.
    • Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
  4. (colloquial) A casual sexual partner.
    • Over the years she'd tried to tell himself that his uptown girl was just another lay.1996, JoAnn Ross, Southern Comforts, MIRA, published 1996, →ISBN, page 166
    • To find a place like that and be discreet about it, Jones figured he needed help, so he went to see his favorite lay, Juan Carillo's woman, Carmen.2000, R. J. Kaiser, Fruitcake, MIRA, published 2000, →ISBN, page 288
  5. (colloquial) An act of sexual intercourse.
    • Listening to this dismissal of his work, [Tennessee] Williams thought to himself of Wilder, “This character has never had a good lay.”1993, David Halberstam, The Fifties, Open Road Integrated Media, published 2012, →ISBN
    • Does his make-up in his room
      Douse himself with cheap perfume
      Eyeholes in a paper bag
      Greatest lay I ever had1996, Placebo, “Nancy Boy”
  6. (archaic, slang) A place or activity where someone spends a significant portion of their time.
    • I shall be on that lay nae mair1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James...
    • Since our people have moved this boy on, and he's not to be found on his old lay1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
  7. The laying of eggs.
    • The hens are off the lay at present.
  8. (obsolete) A layer.
    • […] lay in the bottom of an earthen pot some dried vine leaves, and so make a lay of Pears, and leaves till the pot is filled up, laying betwixt each lay some sliced Ginger […]1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 5
    • […] the whole Body of the Church is chequer’d with different Lays of White and Black Marble […]1718, Joseph Addison, “Sienna, Leghorne, Pisa”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: J. Tonson, page 300
  9. (obsolete) A basis or ground.
    • On this lay or ground we should also add the finishing colours.1835, Richard architetto Brown, The Principles of Practical Perspective, page 122
    • In the first MacColl patent the pattern chain and engaging rod were carried on the swinging lay on which the needle bars are mounted.1899, “MacColl v. Crompton Loom works”, in The Federal Reporter, volume 95, page 990
  10. (obsolete, thieves' cant) A pursuit or practice; a dodge.
    • FIDLAM BENS. Thieves who have no particular lay, whose every finger is a fish-hook; fellows that will steal any thing they can remove.1859, George Washington Matsell, Vocabulum: Or, The Rogue's Lexicon. Comp. from the Most Authentic Sources, page 31
    • "It isn't an exchange lay, at all events," said Mr Carlyle. "His inner case is only half the size of the other and couldn't possibly be substituted."1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados

Noun (2)

lay (plural lays)

  1. A lake.

Adjective

lay (comparative more lay, superlative most lay)

  1. Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them.
    • They seemed more lay than clerical.
    • a lay preacher; a lay brother
    Synonyms:
    laical
  2. (attributive) Non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution.
    • It is true that in adopting the short view many of the younger economists have not merely taken over the lay notions bodily.1958, Jacob Viner, The Long View and the Short, page 112
    • He hasn't caught a mouse since he was a slip of a kitten. Except when eating, he does nothing but sleep. […] It's a sort of disease. There's a scientific name for it. Trau- something. Traumatic symplegia, that's it. This cat has traumatic symplegia. In other words, putting it in simple language...1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII
  3. Not trumps.
    • a lay suit
  4. (obsolete) Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.

Noun (3)

lay (plural lays)

  1. A ballad or sung poem; a short poem or narrative, usually intended to be sung.
    • I strive, with wakeful melody, to cheer
      The sullen gloom, sweet Philomel! like thee,
      And call the stars to listen: every star
      Is deaf to mine, enamour'd of thy lay.1742, Edward Young, The Complaint: or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality, Night I
    • If these brief lays, of Sorrow born,
      ⁠Were taken to be such as closed
      ⁠Grave doubts and answers here proposed,
      Then these were such as men might scorn: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 70
  2. A lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance.
    • 1945: "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" by JRR Tolkien
      Sad is the note and sad the lay,
      but mirth we meet not every day.

Noun (4)

lay (plural lays)

  1. (obsolete) A meadow; a lea.
    • Having destroyed all old lays, I have no other hay than clover.1808, John Curwen, Hints on the Economy of Feeding Stock and Bettering the Condition of the Poor

Noun (5)

lay (plural lays)

  1. (obsolete) A law.
    • A woman worthy of immortall prayse, / Which for this Realme found many goodly layes1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42
  2. (obsolete) An obligation; a vow.
    • they bound themselues by a sacred lay and oth to fight it out to the last man1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C....

Verb (2)

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

  1. (Judaism, transitive) To don or put on (tefillin (phylacteries)).

Proper noun capitalized: Lay

Lay

  1. A river in western France.
  2. A surname.

Also used as

lay is also the simple past of lie.

lay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

lay in Hindi

बिछाई, बिछाना, बिछाने के लिए

lay in Tamil

போடுதல்

lay in Urdu

بچھانا

lay in Bengali

to place something down in a position of rest
রাখা rakha
to deposit an egg
পাড়া paṛa
More languagesFewer languages
lay in Telugu
వేయండి, వేయడం, వేయడానికి
lay in Kannada
ಲೇ
lay in Gujarati
બિછાવે છે, બિછાવવું
lay in Odia
ବିଛାଇବା
lay in Sanskrit
दधाति dadhāti
lay in Arabic
وَضَعَ waḍaʕa
lay in Indonesian
rebah
lay in Persian
تخم گذاردن toxm gozârdan
lay in Thai
วาง waang, ไข่ kài, วางไข่ waang-kài
lay in Vietnamese
đẻ trứng

Examples of lay in a sentence

  • What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest?
  • 1925 The Lay of Leithien, poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon Professor.
  • 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.1735, author unknown, The New-England Primer; as reported by Fred R. Shapiro, The Yale Book of Quotations, Yale University Press, 2006...
  • While the hen is laying, the birds require complete peace and quiet and should on no account be disturbed.1990, Maja Müller-Bierl, “Canary Reproduction”, in Canaries As a New Pet (As a New Pet), Neptune City, N.J.: T.F.H. Publications, →ISBN...
  • In legal commentary a laying hen (cerc céin dothas) is valued at two bushels of grain, whereas a sexually active cock (cailech céin íunas) has only the value of one bushel.1997, Fergus Kelly, “Hens”, in Early Irish Farming: A Study Based Mainly on the Law-Texts of the 7th and 8th Centuries ad […] (Early Irish...
  • Let me lay down beside you. / Let me always be with you.1974, John Denver, “Annie’s Song”, Back Home Again, RCA

All 40 example sentences with lay

Synonyms of lay

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of lay

Forms of lay

Verb
third-person singular presentlays
present participlelaying
past participlelaid
pastlaid
second-person singular present (archaic)layest
second-person singular past (archaic)laidst
second-person singular past (archaic)laidest
third-person singular present (archaic)layeth
Noun
plurallays
alternative formlai

Past tense of lay: laid

Plural of lay: lays

Origin of lay

Inherited from Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lay; to lie”), West Frisian lizze (“to lay, to lie”), Cimbrian leng (“to lay”), Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Limburgish lègke (“to lay”), Luxembourgish leeën (“to lay”), Yiddish לייגן (leygn, “to lay”), Danish lægge (“to lay”), Faroese, Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Norwegian Bokmål legge (“to lay”), Norwegian Nynorsk legga, legge, leggja, leggje (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (lagjan, “to lay”), Old French laier, laiier, laire (“to leave”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).

Inherited from Middle English lay, laye, laie, ley, leye, which may have multiple origins: * Potentially from *læġ-, an unattested variant stem of Old English lagu m (“sea, flood, water, ocean”), if transferred to a-stem inflection (compare Old English dæġ-, dag- (“day”) > Middle English day, daw-); compare plural Middle English lawes and lauen. If so, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *lagu (“water, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *laguz (“water, sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“water, body of water, lake”). * Alternatively, borrowed from Old French lai, from Latin lacus (“lake, hollow, hole”), also from Proto-Indo-European *lókus. * Alternatively, borrowed from leg-, a stem of Old Norse lǫgr, from Proto-Germanic *laguz. Compare Icelandic lögur (“liquid, fluid, lake”). All of these theories make it a doublet of loch, Looe, and lough.

Inherited from Middle English lay, from Old French lai, from Latin lāicus, from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laïkós). Doublet of laic.

Words formed from lay

Phrases with lay

100 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with lay

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lay

What does lay mean?
Lay means to place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
What is lay in Hindi?
Lay in Hindi is बिछाई, बिछाना, बिछाने के लिए. See Lay meaning in Hindi.
How do you use lay in a sentence?
What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest?
What part of speech is lay?
Lay can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lay?
Lay is pronounced /leɪ/.
What is the past tense of lay?
The past tense of lay is laid.

Words near lay in the dictionary

  1. Laxton and Moorhouse
  2. Laxtons
  3. laxtose
  4. laxumin
  5. Laxå
  6. lay
  7. lay a finger on
  8. lay a foundation
  9. lay a glove on
  10. lay a hand on
  11. lay a trip on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay (page history and authors); Lay (page history and authors); lay (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lay (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-lay.ogg.

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