Word.ws English Dictionary

lays low

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

Meaning of lay low

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive) To topple or overcome; to cause to fall; (of a person) to knock out.
    • He was laid low by a vicious blow to the head.
  2. (transitive) To put in an abject condition.
    • My lover had remained in New York with her family because she had picked up the plague, or something just as bad, that had laid her quite low.1979 April 28, Nancy Walker, “A Case of Mistaken Identity”, in Gay Community News, page 19

Verb (2)

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

  1. (informal, proscribed, sometimes) To lie low, to be inconspicuous, especially when the potential object of search.
    • We lay low until the shell went over and then would straighten up again.1904, A Committee of the Survivors, History of the Twelfth Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers, in The Civil War, page 219

Questions about lays low

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

Words near lays low in the dictionary

  1. lays in ashes
  2. lays in lavender
  3. lays into
  4. lays it on
  5. lays it on thick
  6. lays low
  7. lays odds
  8. lays off
  9. lays on
  10. lays on the line
  11. lays on with a trowel

Source and license

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