Word.ws English Dictionary

lay down the marker

lay down the marker verb: to set the standard.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To set the standard.
    • City held firm and even threatened to retake the lead when Adam Johnson tested De Gea, but it was United who laid down the marker for the forthcoming Premier League campaign, beginning the defence of their title by collecting more silverware.2011 August 7, Chris Bevan, “Man City 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport

Forms of lay down the marker

third-person singular presentlays down the marker
present participlelaying down the marker
past participlelaid down the marker
pastlaid down the marker
alternative formlay down a marker

Questions about lay down the marker

What does lay down the marker mean?
Lay down the marker means to set the standard.
What part of speech is lay down the marker?
Lay down the marker is a verb.
What is the past tense of lay down the marker?
The past tense of lay down the marker is laid down the marker.

Words near lay down the marker in the dictionary

  1. lay down one's arms
  2. lay down one's flag
  3. lay down one's life
  4. lay down one's weapons
  5. lay down the law
  6. lay down the marker
  7. lay eggs
  8. lay eyes on
  9. lay figure
  10. lay figures
  11. lay for

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay down the marker (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-lay down the marker.ogg.

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