lay by the heels
lay by the heels verb: to fetter, to shackle; to imprison.
Verb
lay by the heels (third-person singular simple present lays by the heels, present participle laying by the heels, simple past and past participle laid by the heels)
- To fetter, to shackle; to imprison.
- As I live,
If the king blame me for 't, I'll lay ye all
By the heels , and suddenly; and on your heads
Clap round fines , for neglect1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)... - [M]y Lord Chief Justice Keeling hath laid the constable by the heels to answer it next Sessions: which is a horrid shame.1668 November 1 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “October 23rd, 1668”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VIII...
- As I live,
Forms of lay by the heels
| third-person singular present | lays by the heels |
|---|---|
| present participle | laying by the heels |
| past participle | laid by the heels |
| past | laid by the heels |
Questions about lay by the heels
- What does lay by the heels mean?
- Lay by the heels means to fetter, to shackle; to imprison.
- What part of speech is lay by the heels?
- Lay by the heels is a verb.
- What is the past tense of lay by the heels?
- The past tense of lay by the heels is laid by the heels.
Words near lay by the heels in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lay by the heels (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:
Cite this entry: “lay by the heels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lay_by_the_heels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.