Word.ws English Dictionary

stays in one's lane

stays in one's lane is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stay in one's lane.

Meaning of stay in one's lane

Verb

stay in one's lane (third-person singular simple present stays in one's lane, present participle staying in one's lane, simple past and past participle stayed in one's lane)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) In a way whereby one avoids dilettantism: avoiding giving an opinion in domains where one's skills and knowledge are not at an expert level.
  2. (idiomatic, informal) In a way whereby one avoids interfering in others' interests, regardless of skill level.
  3. (idiomatic, informal) To keep to one's own kind; to avoid intermixing or associating with other types of people.
    • That's because this place is racist, but also because most black filmmakers don't have an interest in integrating. They've accepted the premise that they must stay in their lane […]1999, Nelson George, Hip Hop America, page 84
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see stay, in, one's, lane; for example, either manually or via lanekeeping by software.

Questions about stays in one's lane

What is stays in one's lane the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Stays in one's lane is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stay in one's lane.

Words near stays in one's lane in the dictionary

  1. stays away
  2. stays back
  3. stays behind
  4. stays frosty
  5. stays in
  6. stays in one's lane
  7. stays loose
  8. stays on
  9. stays out
  10. stays over
  11. stays put

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stays in one's lane (page history and authors); stay in one's lane (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:

Cite this entry: “stays in one's lane.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stays_in_one%27s_lane. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.