Word.ws English Dictionary

lay on the line

lay on the line verb: to state strongly, clearly, and accurately.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately.
    • Martin presented the list to the 30-member House Republican Policy Committee, laid the facts on the line in cold political terms.1957 June 10, “The Budget: Remember Guam!”, in Time
    • The way I felt about my approach to him—I just wanted to lay it on the line, get an answer & split, I was so nervous. I didn't have any confidence to flirt my way into getting him to my place. Joyce said I can't just take the male role like that.1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To risk.
    • California's Edmund Gerald Brown, 54, laid his political prestige on the line with a sheaf of legislative proposals.1959 July 5, “National Affairs: The Democratic Governors in 1960”, in Time
    • It was King and his network of Christian and Jewish clergy who laid their jobs and, in some cases, their lives on the line until my fellow Southerners were too ashamed and embarrassed to continue their wickedness.2011 March 13, Oliver Thomas, “America's churches can change the world”, in USA Today, retrieved 30 Jul 2011

Forms of lay on the line

third-person singular presentlays on the line
present participlelaying on the line
past participlelaid on the line
pastlaid on the line

Questions about lay on the line

What does lay on the line mean?
Lay on the line means to state strongly, clearly, and accurately.
What part of speech is lay on the line?
Lay on the line is a verb.
What is the past tense of lay on the line?
The past tense of lay on the line is laid on the line.

Words near lay on the line in the dictionary

  1. lay low
  2. lay odds
  3. lay of the land
  4. lay off
  5. lay on
  6. lay on the line
  7. lay on the oars
  8. lay on with a trowel
  9. lay one down
  10. lay one's account
  11. lay one's cards on the table

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay on the line (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 on the line.ogg.

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