lay

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   not of or from a profession

   a lay opinion as to the cause of the disease

2. 2
   verb

   put in a horizontal position

   lay the books on the table

3. 3
   verb

   lay eggs

   This hen doesn't lay

4. 4
   verb

   prepare or position for action or operation

   lay a fire

5. 5
   verb

   impose as a duty, burden, or punishment

   lay a responsibility on someone

6. 6
   verb

   To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.

   to lay a book on the table; to lay a body in the grave

7. 7
   verb

   To cause to subside or abate.

   The cloudes, as things affrayd, before him flye; / But all so soone as his outrageous powre / Is layd, they fiercely then begin to shoure […]

8. 8
   verb

   To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).

   Even when I lay a long plan, it is never in the expectation that I will live to see it fulfilled.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English lay, laye, laie, ley, leye, which may have multiple origins: * Potentially from *læġ-, an unattested variant stem of Old English lagu m (“sea, flood, water, ocean”), if transferred to a-stem inflection (compare Old English dæġ-, dag- (“day”) > Middle English day, daw-); compare plural Middle English lawes and lauen. If so, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *lagu (“water, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *laguz (“water, sea”), from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“water, body of water, lake”). * Alternatively, borrowed from Old French lai, from Latin lacus (“lake, hollow, h…