stays
/steɪz/
stays is the plural of stay.
stays is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stay.
Meaning of stay
Noun
stay (plural stays)
- Continuance or a period of time spent in a place; abode for an indefinite time.
- I hope you enjoyed your stay in Hawaii.
- Synonyms:
- sojourn
- A postponement, especially of an execution or other punishment.
- The governor granted a stay of execution.
- A stop; a halt; a break or cessation of action, motion, or progress.
- stand at a stay
- A fixed state; fixedness; stability; permanence.
- A station or fixed anchorage for vessels.
- Restraint of passion; prudence; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.
- The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
Noun
stays pl (plural only)
- A corset.
- Her face was whiter than snow, and her heart was throbbing through her stays.(p. 502)
- “Listen! I see it all — down, down even to the stays! Such stays! Six-eight a pair, Polly, with red flannel — or list is it? — that they put into the tops of those fearful things. I can draw you a picture of them.”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 20
Proper noun capitalized: Stays
Stays
- plural of Stay
Phrases with stays
- stays in
- stays on
- stays up
- stays out
- stays put
- miss stays
- seat stays
- stays away
- stays back
- stays over
- chain stays
- perch stays
25 more phrasesFewer phrases
- stays loose
- stays tuned
- storm stays
- funnel stays
- missed stays
- misses stays
- spring stays
- stays behind
- stays frosty
- missing stays
- stays at home
- stays up late
- triatic stays
- stays together
- stays the night
- stays the course
- stays the distance
- stays in one's lane
- stays within the lines
- what happens on tour stays on tour
- what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas
- what happens on the road stays on the road
- the family that lays together stays together
- what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas
- the family that prays together stays together
Words that rhyme with stays
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- amaze
- appraise
- craze
- fraise
- gaze
- phrase
- mayonnaise
- ablaze
- braise
- chaise
- lase
- liaise
- malaise
- maze
- peise
- baize
- bayes
- bolognese
- braize
- braze
- days
- daze
- emprise
- laze
- overglaze
- praise
- reyse
- ukase
- upraise
- abbes
- abrase
- acraze
- affrays
- arrays
- assays
- bays
- bayze
- blays
- bordelaise
- borrowing days
- brays
- cays
- chays
- clays
- conveys
- crays
- crème anglaise
- decays
Questions about stays
- What does stays mean?
- Stays means a corset.
- What is stays the plural of?
- Stays is the plural of stay.
- What part of speech is stays?
- Stays can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce stays?
- Stays is pronounced /steɪz/.
Words near stays in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stays (page history and authors); Stays (page history and authors); stay (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-stays.wav.
Cite this entry: “stays.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stays. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.