An indulgent playmate, Grannie wouldlay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
He faced the spectres of the mind Andlaid them: thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own; And Power was with him in the night, Which makes the darkness and the light, And dwells not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the cloud
Tessie lay among the cushions, her face a gray blot in the gloom, but her hands were clasped in mine and I knew that she knew and read my thoughts as I read hers, for we had understood the mystery of the Hyades and the Phantom of Truth waslaid.
Helaid a hundred guineas with the laird of Slofferfield that he would drive four horses through the Slofferfield loch, and in the prank he had his bit chariot dung to pieces and a good mare killed.
1883, Stephen Beale[pseudonym; Edward Brown], “French”, inProfitable Poultry Keeping, London; New York, N.Y.:George Routledge and Sons,[…],→OCLC, chapter X (The Breeds of Poultry),page94:
It[the Houdan breed] bears confinement well, can be kept on any soil, is very hardy,lays well, its flesh is all that can be desired, and it is a nonsitter.
1901 May 24, Mrs. G. A. Gibbons (Journal of Agriculture), “Poultry and Bees: How to Make Chickens Pay”, inEdwards’ Fruit Grower & Farmer, volume XI, number 2, Missoula, Minn.,→OCLC,page[7], column 1:
I never kill a pullet but keep tolay the next year.
1988 [1986], Alice Stern, translated by David Kennard, “Judging a Hen”, inPoultry and Poultry-Keeping, London: Merehurst Press,→ISBN, “Chickens” section,page39, column 1:
A fully grown laying hen has a space between the legs into which it should be possible to place three fingers. A narrower distance than this indicates that the hen no longerlays or, in the case of a young hen, that she is not yetlaying.
[original:Eine ausgewachsene Legehenne hat einen Zwischenraum zwischen den Beinen, in den man gut drei Finger legen kann. Ein geringerer Abstand läßt darauf schließen, daß die Henne nicht mehr oder – bei Junghennen – nochnichtlegt.]
1990, Maja Müller-Bierl, “Canary Reproduction”, inCanaries As a New Pet (As a New Pet), Neptune City, N.J.:T.F.H. Publications,→ISBN,page53, column 1:
While the hen islaying, the birds require complete peace and quiet and should on no account be disturbed. When the hen leaves the nest, one can gently remove the egg and replace it with a dummy egg.
1997,Fergus Kelly, “Hens”, inEarly Irish Farming: A Study Based Mainly on the Law-Texts of the 7th and 8th Centuriesad[…] (Early Irish Law Series; 4), Dublin: School of Celtic Studies,Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, published2000,→ISBN,→ISSN, chapter 3 (Livestock),page102:
In legal commentary alaying hen (cerc céin dothas) is valued at two bushels of grain, whereas a sexually active cock (cailech céin íunas) has only the value of one bushel. When a hen no longerlays and a cock is no longer capable of sexual activity, their value is reduced to half a bushel, as they are fit only for the cooking-pot.
I believe the wind islaying and perhaps we will not have a snow. If it turns cold without snow, we can have the hog killed.
2010 June 28, Roy Bedichek,Karánkaway Country, University of Texas Press,→ISBN, page61:
... the windlaid and Nature seemed to have recovered her good humor. The landscape smiled again, and we drove about a bit to see what the storm had done.
2023 October 26, M. M. Oblinger,Dick Kent with the Eskimos: Icy Adventures with Eskimo Tribes: A Tale of Arctic Exploration and Cultural Discovery, Good Press:
... the windlaid, and several hours afterward, two half frozen men staggered into the camp.
If ever there was a perfect beauty afloat, she is one; and there shelays at Spithead, and anybody in England would take her for an eight-and-twenty. I was upon the platform two hours this afternoon, looking at her. Shelays just astern of the Endymion, with the Cleopatra to larboard.
(proscribed, see usage notes) Tolie: to rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
I found himlaying on the floor.
1969 July, Bob Dylan, “Lay LadyLay”, inNashville Skyline, Columbia:
Lay, lady,lay. /Lay across my big brass bed.
1974, John Denver, “Annie’s Song”,Back Home Again, RCA:
Let melay down beside you. / Let me always be with you.
The transitive verblay is often used instead of the corresponding intransitive verblie, especially in informal settings (mostly, but not necessarily exclusively, in speaking). This happens with all their forms: the present tense and base (infinitive) formslay(s) are used instead of the present tense and base formslie(s), and the simple past and past participle oflay (bothlaid) are used instead of the corresponding forms oflie (lay andlain).
This intransitive use of the forms oflay instead of the forms oflie already started in Middle English, first appearing in the thirteenth century and becoming common in the fifteenth century. The usage was still chiefly limited to the present tense, and it seems that it was influenced by reflexive or passive use oflay (the wounded lay themselves / are laid on the beds).[2]
Several factors contributed to the increased use of all forms oflay for those oflie. One is that the formlay was also originally used as both the base form oflay and as the simple past oflie. Another is the use oflay as a reflexive verb meaning “to go lie (down)”. A third one is avoidance of the homonymy withlie “to tell a lie”. In addition, the verblay looks more complicated than it actually is: it is in fact a regular verb that only looks irregular due to the spelling convention of usinglaid instead oflayed. A similar merger exists in some other Germanic languages, and the two verbs have merged completely inAfrikaanslê(“to lie; to lay”). In German, however, there is no confusion at all even in informal speech:legen, legte, gelegt ("lay, laid, laid") versusliegen, lag, gelegen ("lie, lay, lain") due to the clear differences between the regular forms of the transitive verb and the "irregular" (strong) forms of the intransitive verb.
Traditional grammars, schoolbooks, and style guides object to the common intransitive use oflay, and a certain stigma remains against the practice. Consequently the proper usage is usually found in carefully edited writing or in more formal spoken situations.
Nautical use oflay as an intransitive verb is regarded as standard.[2]
Lain is considered quite formal, and it is rarely used in informal writing, even by those who follow the lie/lay distinction.[3] Because of this, sentences withlain are usually rephrased to remove it. For example, the sentence "Here is the place where I had lain." turns into "This is the place where I was lying."
1977 August 20, Jim Marko, “Building A Gay Culture—An Evening of Poetry and Theatre”, inGay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page16:
He spoke of a flower or tree in each of the fifteen poems. A simple shape, a color, the design of a hedge, thelay of a limb inspired him in these songs to and about his loves.
thelay of the land
A share of the profits in a business.
While the Pequod lay at Nantucket, Peleg put Ishmael down for the three hundredthlay.
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 calledlays, and that theselays were proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company.
Since our people have moved this boy on, and he's not to be found on his oldlay
1899, Frank Norris,Blix. Moran of the Lady Letty. Essays on authorship, page155:
"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 anylay that turns up; ready for any game, from wrecking to barratry.
1677,Hannah Woolley,The Compleat Servant-Maid[3], London: T. Passinger, page 5:
[…] lay in the bottom of an earthen pot some dried vine leaves, and so make alay of Pears, and leaves till the pot is filled up, laying betwixt eachlay some sliced Ginger[…]
1718,Joseph Addison, “Sienna, Leghorne, Pisa”, inRemarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703[4], London: J. Tonson, page300:
[…] the whole Body of the Church is chequer’d with differentLays of White and Black Marble[…]
1724, Thomas Spooner, chapter 2, inA Compendious Treatise of the Diseases of the Skin[5], London, page20:
[…] when we examine the Scarf-Skin with a Microscope, it appears to be made up of severalLays of exceeding small Scales, which cover one another more or less[…]
1766,Thomas Amory,The Life of John Buncle, Esq., London: J. Johnson and B. Davenport, Volume 2, Section 1, p. 16, footnote 1,[6]
[…] in one particular it exceeds the fen birds, for it has two tastes; it being brown and white meat: under alay of brown is alay of white meat[…]
He hasn't caught a mouse since he was a slip of a kitten. Except when eating, he does nothing but sleep.[…] It's a sort of disease. There's a scientific name for it. Trau- something. Traumatic symplegia, that's it. This cat has traumatic symplegia. In other words, putting it in simple language adapted to thelay mind, where other cats are content to get their eight hours, Augustus wants his twenty-four.
1985 February 2, John Zeh, “Sex Ed In Bars”, inGay Community News, volume12, number28, page16:
In what could become a model program for courses across the U.S., this state's gay health consultant has begun training bartenders and bar owners aslay health educators.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
I strive, with wakeful melody, to cheer The sullen gloom, sweet Philomel! like thee, And call the stars to listen: every star Is deaf to mine, enamour'd of thylay.
1805, Sir Walter Scott,TheLay of the Last Minstrel:
If these brieflays, of Sorrow born, Were taken to be such as closed Grave doubts and answers here proposed, Then these were such as men might scorn:[…]
1925TheLay of Leithien, poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon Professor.
^John Bouvier (1839), “LAY”, inA Law Dictionary,[…], volumes II (L–Z), Philadelphia, Pa.: T. & J. W. Johnson,[…], successors to Nicklin & Johnson,[…],→OCLC.
↑2.02.1“lay v.¹”, in James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors,A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VI, Part 1, London: Clarendon Press (1908), page 128.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, launched 2000.