Word.ws English Dictionary

lay-by

UK/ˈleɪ.baɪ/

lay-by noun: a paved area at the side of a highway designated for drivers to stop in, for emergency parking, or where vehicles can wait, with larger lay-bys possibly having facilities such as food vendors or public telephones.

Noun

lay-by (countable and uncountable, plural lay-bys)

  1. (Philippines, UK) A paved area at the side of a highway designated for drivers to stop in, for emergency parking, or where vehicles can wait, with larger lay-bys possibly having facilities such as food vendors or public telephones.
  2. (UK) A railroad siding; a second, short railroad track just to the side of a railroad track, connected with the main track by a switch and used for unloading, bypassing, etc.
    Synonyms:
    siding, sidetrack
  3. A widened section of a narrow river or canal, formed to one side so as to leave the channel free, for mooring of vessels, where vessels can lay over or allow others to pass.
  4. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, uncountable) A method of retail purchase in which the selected goods are set aside and the customer pays for them in instalments, receiving them when fully paid; layaway.
    • Avail yourself of our Lay-By Service1930 October 16, Hordern Brothers (Sydney retailer), advertisement, quoted in 1966, Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, chapter X, section 2, page 206
    Synonyms:
    layaway

lay-by meaning in Tamil and Kannada

lay-by in Tamil

நிலத்தடி ஒற்றைத்தடம்

lay-by in Kannada

ನಿಲುಗಡೆ ಪಕ್ಕ, ಪಾರ್ಶ್ವಪಥ, ಬದಿನೆಲೆ, ದಾರಿಬದಿ

Synonyms of lay-by

All synonyms of lay-by

Forms of lay-by

plurallay-bys
alternative formlay by
alternative formlay bye
alternative formlay-bye

Questions about lay-by

What does lay-by mean?
Lay-by means a paved area at the side of a highway designated for drivers to stop in, for emergency parking, or where vehicles can wait, with larger lay-bys possibly having facilities such as food vendors or public telephones.
What is lay-by in Tamil?
Lay-by in Tamil is நிலத்தடி ஒற்றைத்தடம். See Lay-by meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lay-by?
Lay-by is a noun.
How do you pronounce lay-by?
Lay-by is pronounced /ˈleɪ.baɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of lay-by?
The plural of lay-by is lay-bys.

Words near lay-by in the dictionary

  1. lay waste
  2. lay with
  3. lay-brethren
  4. lay-brother
  5. lay-brothers
  6. lay-by
  7. lay-bye
  8. lay-byes
  9. lay-bys
  10. lay-down
  11. lay-down misère

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay-by (page history and authors); lay-by (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lay-by (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-au-lay-by.ogg.

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