lay
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323128 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L338078 on Wikidata ↗verb
- put, set, cause to exist at some location, putting (horizontally)
- have sexual relation with
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /leɪ/
adj
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English lay, from Old French lai, from Latin lāicus, from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laïkós). Doublet of laic.
- Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them.
“They seemed more lay than clerical.”
“a lay preacher; a lay brother”
- Non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution.
“It is true that in adopting the short view many of the younger economists have not merely taken over the lay notions bodily.”
“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 the lay mind, where other cats are content to get their eight hours, Augustus wants his twenty-four.”
- Not trumps.
“a lay suit”
- Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.
name
Etymology: * As an English surname, spelling variant of Lee. * As a Scottish surname, reduced from McClay. * As a Khmer surname, Khmer ឡាយ (laay). * As a French surname, from several place names in France. The river is from Medieval Latin Ledius. * As a German surname, from various placenames in Bavaria and Rhineland.
- A river in western France.
- A surname.
noun
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English lay, lai, laye, ley, lei, borrowed from Old French lei (“law”). Possibly also from or influenced by the etymologically unrelated Middle English lawe (“law”) (with variants including laige, laiȝh, læȝe), from Old English lagu (“law”). More at law.
- A law.
“A woman worthy of immortall prayse, / Which for this Realme found many goodly layes”
- An obligation; a vow.
“they bound themselues by a sacred lay and oth to fight it out to the last man”
verb
Etymology: Semantic loan from Yiddish לייגן (leygn, “to put, lay”).
- To don or put on (tefillin (phylacteries)).