lay
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: lā
ipa: /leɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
homophone: lei
homophone: ley
homophone: le
Forms: form: lays
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lay; to lie”), West Frisian lizze (“to lay, to lie”), Cimbrian leng (“to lay”), Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Limburgish lègke (“to lay”), Luxembourgish leeën (“to lay”), Yiddish לייגן (leygn, “to lay”), Danish lægge (“to lay”), Faroese, Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Norwegian Bokmål legge (“to lay”), Norwegian Nynorsk legga, legge, leggja, leggje (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (lagjan, “to lay”), Old French laier, laiier, laire (“to leave”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).
Senses: examples: text: He spoke of a flower or tree in each of the fifteen poems. A simple shape, a color, the design of a hedge, the lay of a limb inspired him in these songs to and about his loves.
ref: 1977 August 20, Jim Marko, “Building A Gay Culture—An Evening of Poetry and Theatre”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 16:
text: the lay of the land
glosses: Arrangement or relationship; layout.
examples: text: While the Pequod lay at Nantucket, Peleg put Ishmael down for the three hundredth lay.
text: I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages; but all hands, including the captain, received certain shares of the profits called lays, and that these lays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 16”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
glosses: A share of the profits in a business.
examples: text: Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
glosses: The direction a rope is twisted.
examples: text: Over the years she'd tried to tell himself that his uptown girl was just another lay.
ref: 1996, JoAnn Ross, Southern Comforts, MIRA, published 1996, →ISBN, page 166:
text: To find a place like that and be discreet about it, Jones figured he needed help, so he went to see his favorite lay, Juan Carillo's woman, Carmen.
ref: 2000, R. J. Kaiser, Fruitcake, MIRA, published 2000, →ISBN, page 288:
text: “Because I don't want William to be just another lay. I did the slut thing, T, and it got me into a lot of trouble years ago. […]
ref: 2011, Kelly Meding, Trance, Pocket Books, →ISBN, pages 205–206:
text: What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest?
glosses: A casual sexual partner.
examples: text: Listening to this dismissal of his work, [Tennessee] Williams thought to himself of Wilder, “This character has never had a good lay.”
ref: 1993, David Halberstam, The Fifties, Open Road Integrated Media, published 2012, →ISBN:
text: Does his make-up in his room
Douse himself with cheap perfume
Eyeholes in a paper bag
Greatest lay I ever had
ref: 1996, Placebo, “Nancy Boy”:
text: […] She didn't become this germ freak until Thomas died. I wonder if she just needs a good lay, you know, an all-nighter?" Toots said thoughtfully.
ref: 2009, Fern Michaels, The Scoop, Kensington Books, →ISBN, pages 212–213:
text: “What she needs is a good lay. If she had someone to rock her world on a regular basis, she wouldn't be such a raging bit—”
ref: 2011, Pamela Yaye, Promises We Make, Kimani Press, published 2011, →ISBN:
glosses: An act of sexual intercourse.
examples: text: I shall be on that lay nae mair
ref: 1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:
text: Since our people have moved this boy on, and he's not to be found on his old lay
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
text: "Well, you see, son," Kitcell had explained to Wilbur, "os-ten-siblee we are after shark-liver oil— and so we are; but also we are on any lay that turns up; ready for any game, from wrecking to barratry.
ref: 1899, Frank Norris, Blix. Moran of the Lady Letty. Essays on authorship, page 155:
glosses: A place or activity where someone spends a significant portion of their time.
examples: text: The hens are off the lay at present.
glosses: The laying of eggs.
examples: text: […] lay in the bottom of an earthen pot some dried vine leaves, and so make a lay of Pears, and leaves till the pot is filled up, laying betwixt each lay some sliced Ginger […]
ref: 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 5:
text: […] the whole Body of the Church is chequer’d with different Lays of White and Black Marble […]
ref: 1718, Joseph Addison, “Sienna, Leghorne, Pisa”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: J. Tonson, page 300:
text: […] when we examine the Scarf-Skin with a Microscope, it appears to be made up of several Lays of exceeding small Scales, which cover one another more or less […]
ref: 1724, Thomas Spooner, chapter 2, in A Compendious Treatise of the Diseases of the Skin, London, page 20:
text: 1766, Thomas Amory, The Life of John Buncle, Esq., London: J. Johnson and B. Davenport, Volume 2, Section 1, p. 16, footnote 1,
[…] in one particular it exceeds the fen birds, for it has two tastes; it being brown and white meat: under a lay of brown is a lay of white meat […]
glosses: A layer.
examples: text: On this lay or ground we should also add the finishing colours.
ref: 1835, Richard architetto Brown, The Principles of Practical Perspective, page 122:
text: In the first MacColl patent the pattern chain and engaging rod were carried on the swinging lay on which the needle bars are mounted.
ref: 1899, “MacColl v. Crompton Loom works”, in The Federal Reporter, volume 95, page 990:
glosses: A basis or ground.
examples: text: FIDLAM BENS. Thieves who have no particular lay, whose every finger is a fish-hook; fellows that will steal any thing they can remove.
ref: 1859, George Washington Matsell, Vocabulum: Or, The Rogue's Lexicon. Comp. from the Most Authentic Sources, page 31:
text: Because I've finished, missus. Finished with the thieving lay now and forever.
ref: 1975, H. R. F. Keating, A Remarkable Case of Burglary:
qualifier: thieves' cant
glosses: A pursuit or practice; a dodge.
Synonyms: sense: casual sexual partner
word: casual sexual partner
Derived terms: by the lay
flatlay
inlay
layless
lay of the land
laystall
off the lay
orlay
overlay
same day lay