Word.ws English Dictionary

lay-bys

lay-bys is the plural of lay-by.

Meaning of lay-by

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

Questions about lay-bys

What is lay-bys the plural of?
Lay-bys is the plural of lay-by.

Words near lay-bys in the dictionary

  1. lay-brother
  2. lay-brothers
  3. lay-by
  4. lay-bye
  5. lay-byes
  6. lay-bys
  7. lay-down
  8. lay-down misère
  9. lay-down misères
  10. lay-downs
  11. lay-in

Source and license

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