Word.ws English Dictionary

stay away

stay away verb: to avoid or not go anywhere near someone or something.

Verb

stay away (third-person singular simple present stays away, present participle staying away, simple past and past participle stayed away)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To avoid or not go anywhere near someone or something.
    • Why you act crazy?
      Not an act maybe
      So close a lady
      Shifty eyes shady
      I stay away
      I stay away
      I stay away
      I stay away1994, Alice in Chains, “I Stay Away”, in Jar of Flies (acoustic rock, grunge), performed by Alice in Chains

Forms of stay away

third-person singular presentstays away
present participlestaying away
past participlestayed away
paststayed away

Questions about stay away

What does stay away mean?
Stay away means to avoid or not go anywhere near someone or something.
What part of speech is stay away?
Stay away is a verb.
What is the past tense of stay away?
The past tense of stay away is stayed away.

Words near stay away in the dictionary

  1. staxis
  2. stay
  3. stay and play
  4. stay at home
  5. stay at homes
  6. stay away
  7. stay back
  8. stay behind
  9. stay behinds
  10. stay bolt
  11. stay bolts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stay away (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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