Word.ws English Dictionary

lay on the oars

lay on the oars is the simple past of lie on the oars.

Meaning of lie on the oars

Verb

lie on the oars (third-person singular simple present lies on the oars, present participle lying on the oars, simple past lay on the oars, past participle lain on the oars)

  1. To cease rowing without shipping the oars.
  2. (broadly) To rest; to take a break from working.

Questions about lay on the oars

What is lay on the oars the simple past of?
Lay on the oars is the simple past of lie on the oars.

Words near lay on the oars in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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