Word.ws English Dictionary

lay bye

lay bye is the alternative form 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

Forms of lay bye

plurallay byes

Questions about lay bye

What is lay bye the alternative form of?
Lay bye is the alternative form of lay-by.

Words near lay bye in the dictionary

  1. lay brethren
  2. lay brother
  3. lay brothers
  4. lay by
  5. lay by the heels
  6. lay bye
  7. lay byes
  8. lay bys
  9. lay chase
  10. lay chilly
  11. lay claim

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay bye (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 bye.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lay_bye. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.