Word.ws English Dictionary

lays about

lays about is the third-person singular simple present indicative of lay about.

Meaning of lay about

Verb

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

  1. To strike blows in all directions.
    • [...] At beating quarters up, or forage, / Behaved herself with matchless courage; / And laid about in fight more busily / Than th' Amazonian Dame Penthesile.1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2
  2. To set about, with infinitive or gerund.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay, about.

Questions about lays about

What is lays about the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Lays about is the third-person singular simple present indicative of lay about.

Words near lays about in the dictionary

  1. lays
  2. lays a finger on
  3. lays a foundation
  4. lays a glove on
  5. lays a hand on
  6. lays about
  7. lays an anchor to the windward
  8. lays an egg
  9. lays aside
  10. lays at someone's door
  11. lays away

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lays about (page history and authors); lay about (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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