stay
Part of speech: verb
noun
particle
Morphological type: simple
Topics: law
nautical
transport
Etymology: From Middle English steyen, staien, from Old French estayer, estaier (“to fix, prop up, support, stay”), from estaye, estaie (“a prop, stay”), from Middle Dutch staeye (“a prop, stay”), a contracted form of staede, stade (“a prop, stay, help, aid”) (compare Middle Dutch staeyen, staeden (“to make firm, stay, support, hold still, stabilise”)), from Proto-West Germanic *stadi (“a site, place, location, standing”), from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“a standing, place”), from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“standing”). Influenced by Old English stæġ ("a stay, rope"; see below). Cognate with Old English stede (“a place, spot, locality, fixed position, station, site, standing, status, position of a moving body, stopping, standing still, stability, fixity, firmness, steadfastness”), Swedish stödja (“to prop, support, brace, hold up, bolster”), Icelandic stöðug (“continuous, stable”). More at stead, steady.
Sense of "remain, continue" may be due to later influence from Old French ester, esteir (“to stand, be, continue, remain”), from Latin stāre (“stand”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root above; however, derivation from this root is untenable based on linguistic and historical grounds.
An alternative etymology derives Old French estaye, estaie, from Frankish *stakā, *stakō (“stake, post”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake, bar, stick, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“rod, pole, stick”), making it cognate with Old English staca (“pin, stake”), Old English stician (“to stick, be placed, lie, remain fixed”). Cognate with Albanian shtagë (“a long stick, a pole”). More at stake, stick.
Inflected forms:
form: stays
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: staying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: staid
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: staid
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: stayest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: stayedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: stays
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: stayeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: stay
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: staying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: stayed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: staid
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: stays
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To remain in a particular place, especially for a definite or short period of time; sojourn; abide.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: We stayed in Hawaii for a week.  I can only stay for an hour.
She would commaund the hasty Sunne to stay,
Or backward turne his course from heuen's hight,
Stay, I command you; stay and hear me first,
1874 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Three Friends of Mine,” IV, in The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems, Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875, p. 353,
I stay a little longer, as one stays / To cover up the embers that still burn.
“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.
gloss: To continue to have a particular quality.
pos: verb
tags: copulative
intransitive
examples: Wear gloves so your hands stay warm.
Promise me you'll always stay/remain my little prince.
For as the Flames augment, and as they stay / At their full Height, then languish to decay, / They rise, and sink by Fits […]
The evergreen arch wouldn’t stay firm after she got it up, but wiggled and threatened to tumble down on her head when the hanging baskets were filled.
The three men in the room stayed motionless, holding their breaths.
The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
gloss: To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Lord Mayor of London. See, where he stands between two clergymen!
Duke of Buckingham. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:
But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
Draw in your right elbow, turn your hand outward and bear it lightly, gripe not the pen too hard, with your left hand stay the paper.
Sallows and Reeds, on Banks of Rivers born,
Remain to cut; for Vineyards useful found,
To stay thy Vines and fence thy fruitful Ground.
gloss: To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: […] he has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, as fast as Phoebe could cut it, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute […]
gloss: To stop or delay something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Your ships are stay’d at Venice.
1671, John Evelyn, Diary, entry dated 14 November, 1671, in The Diary of John Evelyn, London: Macmillan, 1906, Volume 2, p. 337,
This business staid me in London almost a week […]
[…] I was willing to stay my Reader on an Argument, that appears to me new […]
The task of recalling him from the vagrancy into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.
[…] she filled the room she entered, and felt often as she stood hesitating one moment on the threshold of her drawing-room, an exquisite suspense, such as might stay a diver before plunging while the sea darkens and brightens beneath him […]
She rose to leave but Libor stayed her.
gloss: To stop or delay something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book 5, in The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker, London: Andrew Crook, 1666, p. ,
[…] all that may but with any the least shew of possibility stay their mindes from thinking that true, which they heartily wish were false, but cannot think it so […]
So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul.
1852, Charlotte Brontë, letter cited in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, Volume 2, Chapter 10,
[…] you must follow the impulse of your own inspiration. If THAT commands the slaying of the victim, no bystander has a right to put out his hand to stay the sacrificial knife: but I hold you a stern priestess in these matters.
Between Pegāna and the Earth flutter ten thousand thousand prayers that beat their wings against the face of Death, and never for one of them hath the hand of the Striker been stayed, nor yet have tarried the feet of the Relentless One.
gloss: To stop or delay something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Now stay your strife […]
For flattering planets seemed to say
This child should ills of ages stay,
gloss: To stop or delay something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The governor stayed the execution until the appeal could be heard.
Without one word to deny himself, Yuan let himself be bound, his hands behind his back, and no one could stay the matter.
As I curled up like a dying fish beneath his flailing boots, I managed to stay his assault long enough to tell him that I had only ever seen myself as his most loyal servant […]
gloss: To hold the attention of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To bear up under; to endure; to hold out against; to resist.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
gloss: To wait for; await.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: My father stays my coming;
Let me stay the growth of his beard,
gloss: To remain for the purpose of; to stay to take part in or be present at (a meal, ceremony etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: I stay dinner there.
Some of the company staid supper, which prevented the embarrassment that must unavoidably have arisen, had the family been by themselves.
How glad they had been to hear papa invite him to stay dinner, how sorry when he said it was quite out of his power […]
gloss: To rest; depend; rely.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
I stay here on my bond.
gloss: To stop; come to a stand or standstill.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
gloss: To come to an end; cease.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: That day the storm stayed.
Here my commission stays,
gloss: To dwell; linger; tarry; wait.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: Yet not to be wholly silent of all your Charities I must stay a little on one Action, which preferr’d the Relief of Others, to the Consideration of your Self.
gloss: To make a stand; to stand firm.
pos: verb
tags: dated
intransitive
gloss: To hold out, as in a race or contest; last or persevere to the end; to show staying power.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: That horse stays well.
gloss: To wait; rest in patience or expectation.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: I’ll tell thee all my whole device / When I am in my coach, which stays for us.
The Father cannot stay any longer for the Portion, nor the Mother for a new Sett of Babies to play with […]
"That is all. Stay—in the paper you have, look down the first money column and see if there is any reference to the Central and Suburban."
gloss: To wait as an attendant; give ceremonious or submissive attendance.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: I have a servant comes with me along,
That stays upon me […]
Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
gloss: To live; reside.
pos: verb
tags: India
Scotland
Singapore
South-Africa
Southern-US
colloquial
intransitive
examples: Hey, where do you stay at?
gloss: Continuance or a period of time spent in a place; abode for an indefinite time.
pos: noun
examples: I hope you enjoyed your stay in Hawaii.
gloss: A postponement, especially of an execution or other punishment.
pos: noun
examples: The governor granted a stay of execution.
Later that day, however, Judge O'Kelley signed a stay of execution when Mr. Potts authorized other attorneys to renew his appeals.
Just before the deadline Donald Kowalski's attorney, Jack Fena, was able to obtain a stay in order to give him time to file a motion to overturn the testing order.
An appellate judge temporarily stayed the monitor’s work until a three-judge federal appeals panel can decide whether the stay should be kept in place longer while Apple undertakes a full challenge to the appointment of a monitor.
gloss: A stop; a halt; a break or cessation of action, motion, or progress.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: stand at a stay
Made of ſphear-metal, never to decay / Untill his revolution was at ſtay.
Affaires of state […] seemed rather to stand at a stay.
gloss: A fixed state; fixedness; stability; permanence.
pos: noun
gloss: A station or fixed anchorage for vessels.
pos: noun
gloss: Restraint of passion; prudence; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.
pos: noun
examples: The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.
Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.
With prudent stay he long deferred / The rough contention.
gloss: Hindrance; let; check.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.
gloss: Aspect marker indicating frequency or permanence.
pos: particle
examples: He stay fighting.
Synonyms: repress
stifle
cease
discontinue
halt
stop
terminate
resist
wait for
wait on
brake
desist
end
sojourn
bestand
serve
keep
remain
Related words: abide
belive
continue
dwell
live
remain
reside
tarry
Derived words: farmstay
gay for the stay
homestay
staycation
staymaking
stayover
staystitch
stay time
Translations: