Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Stay   /steɪ/   Listen
verb
Stay  v. t.  (past & past part. stayed or staid; pres. part. staying)  
1.
To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support. "Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side." "Sallows and reeds... for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines."
2.
To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time. "He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute."
3.
To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist successfully. "She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes."
4.
To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold. "Him backward overthrew and down him stayed With their rude hands and grisly grapplement." "All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false."
5.
To hinder; to delay; to detain; to keep back. "Your ships are stayed at Venice." "This business staid me in London almost a week." "I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new."
6.
To remain for the purpose of; to wait for. "I stay dinner there."
7.
To cause to cease; to put an end to. "Stay your strife." "For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay."
8.
(Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler.
9.
(Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind.
To stay a mast (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to one side, by the stays and backstays.


Stay  v. i.  
1.
To remain; to continue in a place; to abide fixed for a space of time; to stop; to stand still. "She would command the hasty sun to stay." "Stay, I command you; stay and hear me first." "I stay a little longer, as one stays To cover up the embers that still burn."
2.
To continue in a state. "The flames augment, and stay At their full height, then languish to decay."
3.
To wait; to attend; to forbear to act. "I 'll tell thee all my whole device When I am in my coach, which stays for us." "The father can not stay any longer for the fortune."
4.
To dwell; to tarry; to linger. "I must stay a little on one action."
5.
To rest; to depend; to rely; to stand; to insist. "I stay here on my bond." "Ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon."
6.
To come to an end; to cease; as, that day the storm stayed. (Archaic) "Here my commission stays."
7.
To hold out in a race or other contest; as, a horse stays well. (Colloq.)
8.
(Naut.) To change tack, as a ship.


noun
Stay  n.  (Naut.) A large, strong rope, employed to support a mast, by being extended from the head of one mast down to some other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays.
In stays, or Hove in stays (Naut.), in the act or situation of staying, or going about from one tack to another.
Stay holes (Naut.), openings in the edge of a staysail through which the hanks pass which join it to the stay.
Stay tackle (Naut.), a tackle attached to a stay and used for hoisting or lowering heavy articles over the side.
To miss stays (Naut.), to fail in the attempt to go about.
Triatic stay (Naut.), a rope secured at the ends to the heads of the foremast and mainmast with thimbles spliced to its bight into which the stay tackles hook.


Stay  n.  
1.
That which serves as a prop; a support. "My only strength and stay." "Trees serve as so many stays for their vines." "Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry."
2.
pl. A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men. "How the strait stays the slender waist constrain."
3.
Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city. "Make haste, and leave thy business and thy care; No mortal interest can be worth thy stay." "Embrace the hero and his stay implore."
4.
Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop. "Made of sphere metal, never to decay Until his revolution was at stay." "Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay."
5.
Hindrance; let; check. (Obs.) "They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false."
6.
Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety. (Obs.) "Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays." "The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king." "With prudent stay he long deferred The rough contention."
7.
(Engin.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.
Stay bolt (Mech.), a bolt or short rod, connecting opposite plates, so as to prevent them from being bulged out when acted upon by a pressure which tends to force them apart, as in the leg of a steam boiler.
Stay busk, a stiff piece of wood, steel, or whalebone, for the front support of a woman's stays. Cf. Busk.
Stay rod, a rod which acts as a stay, particularly in a steam boiler.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Stay" Quotes from Famous Books



... plasterer on the first floor," he said. "He is well known in the Section for his patriotism, but in reality he is an adherent of the Bourbons. He used to be a huntsman in the service of his Highness the Prince de Conti, and he owes everything to him. So long as you stay in the house, you are safer here than anywhere else in France. Do not go out. Pious souls will minister to your necessities, and you can wait in safety for better times. Next year, on the 21st of January,"—he ...
— An Episode Under the Terror • Honore de Balzac
... left me four years ago, when he was just twenty-five,—about a year after the termination of his college course, which you know was honorable to him, and gratifying to me. He then went to spend a year, or a year and a half, as he supposed, in Germany. His stay (he was not all the time in Germany, however) was prolonged for more than three years. In the letters which I received from him, and which gradually became more rare and more brief, there was (without one symptom of decay of personal affection) a certain ...
— The Eclipse of Faith - Or, A Visit To A Religious Sceptic • Henry Rogers
... a famous old quarto, abounding in picturesque narratives of corsairs, captives, dungeons, and sea-fights; and making mention of a cruel old Dey, who, toward the latter part of his life, was so filled with remorse for his cruelties and crimes that he could not stay in bed after four o'clock in the morning, but had to rise in great trepidation and walk off his bad feelings till breakfast time. And another venerable octavo, containing a certificate from Sir Christopher Wren to its authenticity, entitled "Knox's ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... know is why did grandmamma stay with grandpapa if he were, or was, such a very bad man?" ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand
... you did," murmured Celestina, with her eyes still on his face. "Now you must sit right down an' tell me all about yourself an' your folks. I want to know everything—where you come from; when you got here; how long you can stay, an' all." ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett


More quotes...


Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org