stay definition | Dictionary.com

stay

1 [stey]

,verb, stayed or staid, stay⋅ing, noun

–verb (used without object)

1.	to spend some time in a place, in a situation, with a person or group, etc.: He stayed in the army for ten years.

2.	to continue to be as specified, as to condition or state: to stay clean.

3.	to hold out or endure, as in a contest or task (fol. by with or at): Please stay with the project as long as you can.

4.	to keep up, as with a competitor (fol. by with).

5.	Poker. to continue in a hand by matching an ante, bet, or raise.

6.	to stop or halt.

7.	to pause or wait, as for a moment, before proceeding or continuing; linger or tarry.

8.	Archaic. to cease or desist.

9.	Archaic. to stand firm.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to stop or halt.

11.	to hold back, detain, or restrain, as from going further.

12.	to suspend or delay (actions, proceedings, etc.).

13.	to appease or satisfy temporarily the cravings of (the stomach, appetite, etc.).

14.	to remain through or during (a period of time): We stayed two days in San Francisco.

15.	to remain to the end of; remain beyond (usually fol. by out).

16.	Archaic. to await.

–noun

17.	the act of stopping or being stopped.

18.	a stop, halt, or pause; a standstill.

19.	a sojourn or temporary residence: a week's stay in Miami.

20.	Law. a stoppage or arrest of action; suspension of a judicial proceeding: The governor granted a stay of execution.

21.	Informal. staying power; endurance.

—Idiom

22.	stay the course, to persevere; endure to completion.

Origin:
1400–50; late ME staien < AF estaier, OF estai-, s. of ester < L stāre to stand

stay

2 [stey]

,noun, verb, stayed, stay⋅ing.

–noun

1.	something used to support or steady a thing; prop; brace.

2.	a flat strip of steel, plastic, etc., used esp. for stiffening corsets, collars, etc.

3.	a long rod running between opposite walls, heads or sides of a furnace, boiler, tank, or the like, to strengthen them against internal pressures.

4.	stays, Chiefly British. a corset.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to support, prop, or hold up (sometimes fol. by up).

6.	to sustain or strengthen mentally or spiritually.

7.	to rest on (something, as a foundation or base) for support.

8.	to cause something to become fixed or to rest on (a support, foundation, base, etc.)

Origin:
1505–15; appar. same as stay ³ (cf. OF estayer to hold in place, support, perh. deriv. of ME steye stay ³ )

stay

3 [stey]

noun, verb, stayed, stay⋅ing. Chiefly Nautical

–noun

1.	any of various strong ropes or wires for steadying masts, funnels, etc.

–verb (used with object)

2.	to support or secure with a stay or stays: to stay a mast.

3.	to put (a ship) on the other tack.

–verb (used without object)

4.	(of a ship) to change to the other tack.

—Idiom

5.	in stays, (of a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel) heading into the wind with sails shaking, as in coming about.

Origin:
bef. 1150; ME stey(e), OE stæg; c. G Stag

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To stay

stay¹ (stā)

v. stayed, stay·ing, stays

v. intr.

To continue to be in a place or condition: stay home; stay calm.
To remain or sojourn as a guest or lodger: stayed at a motel.
To stop moving; halt.
To wait; pause.
To endure or persist: stayed with the original plan.
To keep up in a race or contest: tried to stay with the lead runner.
Games To meet a bet in poker without raising it.
To stand one's ground; remain firm.
Archaic To cease from a specified activity.

v. tr.

To stop or halt; check.
To postpone; delay.
To delay or stop the effect of (an order, for example) by legal action or mandate: stay a prisoner's execution.
To satisfy or appease temporarily: stayed his anger.
To remain during: stayed the week with my parents; stayed the duration of the game.
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).

The act of halting; check.
The act of coming to a halt.
A brief period of residence or visiting.
A suspension or postponement of a legal action or an execution: granted a stay to the prisoner's execution.

[Middle English steien, from Old French ester, esteir, from Latin stāre; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

Synonyms: 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.

stay² (stā)

tr.v. stayed, stay·ing, stays

To brace, support, or prop up.
To strengthen or sustain mentally or spiritually.
To rest or fix on for support.

A support or brace.
A strip of bone, plastic, or metal, used to stiffen a garment or part, such as a corset or shirt collar.
stays A corset.

[Middle English staien, from Old French estaiier, from estaie, a support, of Germanic origin.]

stay³ (stā)

Nautical A heavy rope or cable, usually of wire, used as a brace or support for a mast or spar.
A rope used to steady, guide, or brace.

tr. & intr.v. stayed, stay·ing, stays Nautical
To put (a ship) on the opposite tack or to come about.

[Middle English, from Old English stæg.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Stay

Stay\, n. [AS. st[ae]g, akin to D., G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. stag; cf. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, of Teutonic origin.] (Naut.) A large, strong rope, employed to support a mast, by being extended from the head of one mast down to some other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship.

In stays, or Hove in stays (Naut.), in the act or situation of staying, or going about from one tack to another. --R. H. Dana, Jr.

Stay holes (Naut.), openings in the edge of a staysail through which the hanks pass which join it to the stay.

Stay tackle (Naut.), a tackle attached to a stay and used for hoisting or lowering heavy articles over the side.

To miss stays (Naut.), to fail in the attempt to go about. --Totten.

Triatic stay (Naut.), a rope secured at the ends to the heads of the foremast and mainmast with thimbles spliced to its bight into which the stay tackles hook.

Stay

Stay\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stayedor Staid; p. pr. & vb. n. Staying.] [OF. estayer, F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop, probably fr. OD. stade, staeye, a prop, akin to E. stead; or cf. stay a rope to support a mast. Cf. Staid, a., Stay, v. i.]

1. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support.

Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. --Ex. xvii. 12.

Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. --Dryden.

2. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.

He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute. --Sir W. Scott.

3. To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist successfully.

She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes. --Shak.

4. To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold.

Him backward overthrew and down him stayed With their rude hands grisly grapplement. --Spenser.

All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartly wish were false. --Hooker.

5. To hinde?; to delay; to detain; to keep back.

Your ships are stayed at Venice. --Shak.

This business staid me in London almost a week. --Evelyn.

I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new. --Locke.

6. To remain for the purpose of; to wait for. "I stay dinner there." --Shak.

7. To cause to cease; to put an end to.

Stay your strife. --Shak.

For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay. --Emerson.

8. (Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler.

9. (Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind.

To stay a mast (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to one side, by the stays and backstays.

Stay

Stay\, v. i. [[root]163. See Stay to hold up, prop.]

1. To remain; to continue in a place; to abide fixed for a space of time; to stop; to stand still.

She would command the hasty sun to stay. --Spenser.

Stay, I command you; stay and hear me first. --Dryden.

I stay a little longer, as one stays To cover up the embers that still burn. --Longfellow.

2. To continue in a state.

The flames augment, and stay At their full height, then languish to decay. --Dryden.

3. To wait; to attend; to forbear to act.

I'll tell thee all my whole device When I am in my coach, which stays for us. --Shak.

The father can not stay any longer for the fortune. --Locke.

4. To dwell; to tarry; to linger.

I must stay a little on one action. --Dryden.

5. To rest; to depend; to rely; to stand; to insist.

I stay here on my bond. --Shak.

Ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon. --Isa. xxx. 12.

6. To come to an end; to cease; as, that day the storm stayed. [Archaic]

Here my commission stays. --Shak.

7. To hold out in a race or other contest; as, a horse stays well. [Colloq.]

8. (Naut.) To change tack; as a ship.

Stay

Stay\, n. [Cf. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai support, and E. stay a rope to support a mast.]

1. That which serves as a prop; a support. "My only strength and stay." --Milton.

Trees serve as so many stays for their vines. --Addison.

Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry. --Coleridge.

2. pl. A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.

How the strait stays the slender waist constrain. --Gay.

3. Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.

Make haste, and leave thy business and thy care; No mortal interest can be worth thy stay. --Dryden.

Embrace the hero and his stay implore. --Waller.

4. Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.

Made of sphere metal, never to decay Until his revolution was at stay. --Milton.

Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay. --Hayward.

5. Hindrance; let; check. [Obs.]

They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false. --Robynson (more's Utopia).

6. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety. [Obs.] "Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays." --Herbert.

The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king. --Bacon.

With prudent stay he long deferred The rough contention. --Philips.

7. (Engin.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.

Stay bolt (Mech.), a bolt or short rod, connecting opposite plates, so as to prevent them from being bulged out when acted upon by a pressure which tends to force them apart, as in the leg of a steam boiler.

Stay busk, a stiff piece of wood, steel, or whalebone, for the front support of a woman's stays. Cf. Busk.

Stay rod, a rod which acts as a stay, particularly in a steam boiler.

Language Translation for : stay

Italian: restare, rimanere,

German: bleiben,

Japanese: とどまる

More Translations »

stay (v.)

"to remain," 1440, from M.Fr. estai-, stem of ester "to stay or stand," from O.Fr., from L. stare "to stand" (cf. It. stare, Sp. estar "to stand, to be"), from PIE base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Originally "come to a halt;" sense of "remain" is first recorded 1575. Noun senses of "appliance for stopping," "period of remaining in a place," and (judicial) "suspension of proceeding" all developed 1525-1550. Stay-at-home (adj.) is from 1806. Stay put is first recorded 1843, Amer.Eng. Phrase stay the course is originally (1885) in ref. to horses holding out till the end of a race.

stay (n.1)

"support, prop, brace," c.1515, from M.Fr. estaie "piece of wood used as a support," perhaps from Frank. *staka "support," from P.Gmc. *stagaz (cf. M.Du. stake "stick," O.E. steli "steel" stæg "rope used to support a mast"), from PIE *stak- (see stay (n.2)). If not, then from the root of stay (v.). Stays "laced underbodice" is attested from 1608.

stay (n.2)

"strong rope which supports a ship's mast," from O.E. stæg, from P.Gmc. *stagan (cf. Du. stag, Low Ger. stach, Ger. Stag, O.N. stag), from PIE *stak-, ult. an extended form of base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). The verb meaning "secure or steady with stays" is first recorded 1627.

Main Entry: stay
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: stayed; stay·ing
: to temporarily suspend or prevent by judicial or executive order stay proceedings in a state court —U.S. Code>

Main Entry: stay
Function: noun
: a temporary suspension or injunction of an action or process by a usually discretionary judicial or executive order stay of execution of the judgment> <stay of a lower court's judgment pending certiorari —W. J. Brennan, Junior> —see also AUTOMATIC STAY —compare cease-and-desist order at ORDER 3b, MANDAMUS, SUPERSEDEAS

stay

In addition to the idioms beginning with stay, also see here to stay; (stay) in touch; (stay on one's) right side; should have stood (stayed) in bed; stick (stay) with.

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