Word.ws English Dictionary

laying on

laying on is the present participle and gerund of lay on.

Meaning of lay on

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To provide (food or drinks) for free.
    • At the conference, they laid on a wonderful buffet.
  2. To provide.
    • Özil has 16 assists in the Premier League and three goals; he has two more goals in the Champions League. On Monday, he took Bournemouth apart in the 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium, setting up the first for Gabriel and scoring the second himself. Özil laid on a total of nine chances, the majority...2016 January 1, David Hytner, The Guardian
  3. (transitive) To apply or implement (something).
    • He laid on the solicitude pretty thickly.
  4. (idiomatic, transitive) To repeatedly say (particular types of thing).
    • He laid on compliments.
  5. To do something excessively.
    • I would I could see / this taborer! He lays it on.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  6. (transitive) To cover something with a layer of (something).
    • He's going to lay on a coat of primer before painting the wall.

See all 14 meanings of lay on

Questions about laying on

What is laying on the present participle and gerund of?
Laying on is the present participle and gerund of lay on.

Words near laying on in the dictionary

  1. laying it on
  2. laying it on thick
  3. laying low
  4. laying odds
  5. laying off
  6. laying on
  7. laying on of hands
  8. laying on the line
  9. laying on with a trowel
  10. laying one down
  11. laying one's account

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laying on (page history and authors); lay on (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: “laying on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laying_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.