Word.ws English Dictionary

lay system

lay system proper noun: the system of remuneration in which fishermen or merchant mariners are paid a lay (a share of the vessel's profit) plus the value of room and board derived from being shipboard and eating in the mess.

Proper noun (1)

lay system

  1. The system of remuneration in which fishermen or merchant mariners are paid a lay (a share of the vessel's profit) plus the value of room and board derived from being shipboard and eating in the mess.
    • He preferred the lay system because there was a chance that he could really clean up if the luck held out.

Proper noun (2)

lay system

  1. (UK, archaic, especially) A certain system of fallow farming with a certain crop rotation and rotation of arable and pasturage.
    • They farmed this whole valley on the lay system back then, and the lord kept the horses and ploughmen busy.

Origin of lay system

lay + system

Questions about lay system

What does lay system mean?
Lay system means the system of remuneration in which fishermen or merchant mariners are paid a lay (a share of the vessel's profit) plus the value of room and board derived from being shipboard and eating in the mess.
What part of speech is lay system?
Lay system is a proper noun.

Words near lay system in the dictionary

  1. lay something at the door of
  2. lay something at the feet of
  3. lay speaker
  4. lay speakers
  5. lay store by
  6. lay system
  7. lay the dust
  8. lay the groundwork
  9. lay the hammer down
  10. lay the pipe
  11. lay the smack down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay system (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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