Past tense of stay
regular verb
The past tense of stay is stayed. The past participle is also stayed.
Forms of stay
| Base form (V1) | stay /steɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | stayed /steɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | stayed /steɪd/ |
| Present participle | staying /ˈsteɪ.ɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | stays /steɪz/ |
Stayed in a sentence
- We stayed in Hawaii for a week. I can only stay for an hour.
- “Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- A sidewalk preacher gave an impassioned sermon while an assistant leafleted those who stayed to listen.From the entry leaflet
- We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.From the entry friend
- She stayed up all night to watch over the sick infant.From the entry watch over
Meaning of stay
- verb To remain in a particular place, especially for a definite or short period of time; sojourn; abide.
- verb To continue to have a particular quality.
- verb To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.
Questions about the past tense of stay
- What is the past tense of stay?
- The past tense of stay is stayed.
- What is the past participle of stay?
- The past participle of stay is stayed.
- Is stay a regular or irregular verb?
- Stay is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stay (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of stay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/stay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.