stay
 I. stay1 (stā)v. stayed, stay·ing, staysv. intr.
1. To continue to be in a place or condition:
stay home; stay calm.
2. To remain or sojourn as a guest or lodger:
stayed at a motel.
3. To stop moving; halt.
4. To wait; pause.
5. To endure or persist:
stayed with the original plan.
6. To keep up in a race or contest:
tried to stay with the lead runner.
7. Games. To meet a bet in poker without raising it.
8. To stand one's ground; remain firm.
9. Archaic. To cease from a specified activity.v. tr.
1. To stop or halt; check.
2. To postpone; delay.
3. To delay or stop the effect of (an order, for example) by legal action or mandate:
stay a prisoner's execution.
4. To satisfy or appease temporarily:
stayed his anger.
5. To remain during:
stayed the week with my parents; stayed the duration of the game.
6. To wait for; await: “I will not stay thy questions. Let me go;/Or if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood” (Shakespeare). n.
1. The act of halting; check.
2. The act of coming to a halt.
3. A brief period of residence or visiting.
4. A suspension or postponement of a legal action or an execution:
granted a stay to the prisoner's execution.Idioms:stay put
To remain in a fixed or established position.stay the course
To hold out or persevere to the end of a race or challenge. [Middle English steien, from Old French ester, esteir, from Latin stāre. See stā- in Indo-European Roots.]
Synonyms: stay1, remain, wait, abide, tarry1, linger, sojourn
These verbs mean to continue to be in a given place. Stay is the least specific, though it can also suggest that the person involved is a guest or visitor: “Must you go? Can't you stay?” (Charles J. Vaughan). Remain often implies continuing or being left after others have gone: I remained at the end of the meeting to talk to the speaker. Wait suggests remaining in readiness, anticipation, or expectation: “Your father is waiting for me to take a walk with him” (Booth Tarkington). Abide implies continuing for a lengthy period: “Abide with me” (Henry Francis Lyte). Tarry and linger both imply a delayed departure, but linger more strongly suggests reluctance to leave: “She was not anxious but puzzled that her husband tarried” (Eden Phillpotts). “I alone sit lingering here” (Henry Vaughan). To sojourn is to reside temporarily in a place: “He was sojourning at [a] hotel in Bond Street” (Anthony Trollope). See also synonyms at defer1 II. stay2 (stā)tr.v. stayed, stay·ing, stays
1. To brace, support, or prop up.
2. To strengthen or sustain mentally or spiritually.
3. To rest or fix on for support.n.
1. A support or brace.
2. A strip of bone, plastic, or metal, used to stiffen a garment or part, such as a corset or shirt collar.
3. stays A corset. [Middle English staien, from Old French estaiier, from estaie, a support, of Germanic origin.] III. stay3 (stā)n.
1. Nautical. A heavy rope or cable, usually of wire, used as a brace or support for a mast or spar.
2. A rope used to steady, guide, or brace.tr. & intr.v. Nautical stayed, stay·ing, stays
To put (a ship) on the opposite tack or to come about. [Middle English, from Old English stæg.]
|
|
