LAY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Lay

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Lay

verb

(past & past part. laid; pres. part. laying)

1.

Put into a certain place or abstract location. Synonyms: place, pose, position, put, set. "Set the tray down" , "Set the dogs on the scent of the missing children" , "Place emphasis on a certain point"

2.

Put in a horizontal position. Synonyms: put down, repose. "Lay the patient carefully onto the bed"

3.

Prepare or position for action or operation. "Lay the foundation for a new health care plan"

4.

Lay eggs.

5.

Impose as a duty, burden, or punishment.

adjective

1.

Characteristic of those who are not members of the clergy. Synonyms: laic, secular. "The lay ministry"

2.

Not of or from a profession.

noun

1.

A narrative song with a recurrent refrain. Synonym: ballad.

2.

A narrative poem of popular origin. Synonym: ballad.

Lie

verb

(in the sense of being located: past lay; past part. lain, obs. lien; pres. part. lying) (in the sense of telling an untruth: past & past part. lied; pres. part. lying)

1.

Be located or situated somewhere; occupy a certain position.

2.

Be lying, be prostrate; be in a horizontal position. "The books are lying on the shelf" Antonyms: sit, stand.

3.

Originate (in). Synonyms: consist, dwell, lie in.

4.

Be and remain in a particular state or condition.

5.

Tell an untruth; pretend with intent to deceive. "She lied when she told me she was only 29"

6.

Have a place in relation to something else. Synonym: rest. "The responsibility rests with the Allies"

7.

Assume a reclining position. Synonym: lie down. Antonym: arise.

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Trygve Halvden Lie

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Lay" Quotes from Famous Books

... is my opinion that a cavalry force, landed above on the Neck, could cut Mosby's four companies off, and capture them in the position they lay. ...

— Between the Lines - Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After • Henry Bascom Smith

... stones of the place;" and again it is written (ver. 18), "And he took the stone." Rabbi Isaac says this teaches that all these stones gathered themselves together into one place, as if each were eager that the saint should lay his head upon it. It happened, as the Rabbis tell us, that all the stones were swallowed up by one another, and thus merged ...

— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... thyself how things would have fallen out, if Menelaus of the fair hair, the son of Atreus, when he came back from Troy, had found Aegisthus yet alive in the halls. Then even in his death would they not have heaped the piled earth over him, but dogs and fowls of the air would have devoured him as he lay on the plain far from the town. {*} Nor would any of the Achaean women have bewailed him; so dread was the deed he contrived. Now we sat in leaguer there, achieving many adventures; but he the while in peace in the heart of Argos, the pastureland ...

— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... any one, either of the Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried off by a crocodile or brought to his death by the river itself, the people of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse and bury it as that of one who ...

— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 1(of 2) • Herodotus

... With a stroke they will lay a knave in our Lady-bonds,[182] And this day yet they have done ...

— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Robert Dodsley

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