lay

Meaning

1. To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
2. To cause to subside or abate.
3. To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).
4. To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
5. To produce and deposit an egg.
6. To bet (that something is or is not the case).
7. To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
8. (slang) To have sex with.
9. To state; to allege.
10. To point; to aim.
11. To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them.
12. To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
13. To place (new type) properly in the cases.
14. To apply; to put.
15. To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.).
16. To impute; to charge; to allege.
17. To present or offer.
18. To take a position; to come or go.
19. To lie: to rest in a horizontal position on a surface.

put

lay egg

give birth to

give rise

make use of

put on clothes

put onto

give odds

turn to account

lie on

pass oneself off

put by

short poem

smooth down

throw to the ground

turn something over

unploughed

lay something upside down

spread all over

bring into existence

be laid

lay the foundation of

not trained

spread a net

nonexpert

cause to lie

make a presentation of

nonecclesiastical

distribute a bonus

share profit

receive dividends

meadow grass rotation

elucidate

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/leɪ/

From Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with West Frisian lizze (“to lay, to lie”), Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Norwegian Bokmål legge (“to lay”), Norwegian Nynorsk leggja (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).

Cognate with Western Frisian

lizze

Cognate with Dutch

leggen

Cognate with German

legen

New

lie

1. To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
2. To be placed or situated.
3. To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
4. Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
5. Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
6. Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
7. To lodge; to sleep.
8. To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest.
9. To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained.

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