stay

verb

1. (intransitive)To remain in a particular place, especially for a definite or short period of time; sojourn; abide.

   “We stayed in Hawaii for a week.  I can only stay for an hour.”

   “She would commaund the hasty Sunne to stay, Or backward turne his course from heuen's hight,”

   “Stay, I command you; stay and hear me first,”

   “1874 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Three Friends of Mine,” IV, in The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems, Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875, p. 353, I stay a little longer, as one stays / To cover up the embers that still burn.”

   ““Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.”

2. (copulative, intransitive)To continue to have a particular quality.

   “Wear gloves so your hands stay warm.”

   “Promise me you'll always stay/remain my little prince.”

   “For as the Flames augment, and as they stay / At their full Height, then languish to decay, / They rise, and sink by Fits […]”

   “The evergreen arch wouldn’t stay firm after she got it up, but wiggled and threatened to tumble down on her head when the hanging baskets were filled.”

   “The three men in the room stayed motionless, holding their breaths.”

3. (transitive)To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.

   “Lord Mayor of London. See, where he stands between two clergymen! Duke of Buckingham. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince, To stay him from the fall of vanity:”

   “But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”

   “Draw in your right elbow, turn your hand outward and bear it lightly, gripe not the pen too hard, with your left hand stay the paper.”

   “Sallows and Reeds, on Banks of Rivers born, Remain to cut; for Vineyards useful found, To stay thy Vines and fence thy fruitful Ground.”

4. (transitive)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, as fast as Phoebe could cut it, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute […]”

5. (transitive)To stop or delay something.

   “Your ships are stay’d at Venice.”

   “1671, John Evelyn, Diary, entry dated 14 November, 1671, in The Diary of John Evelyn, London: Macmillan, 1906, Volume 2, p. 337, This business staid me in London almost a week […]”

   “[…] I was willing to stay my Reader on an Argument, that appears to me new […]”

   “The task of recalling him from the vagrancy into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.”

   “[…] she filled the room she entered, and felt often as she stood hesitating one moment on the threshold of her drawing-room, an exquisite suspense, such as might stay a diver before plunging while the sea darkens and brightens beneath him […]”

6. (transitive)To stop or delay something.

   “1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book 5, in The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker, London: Andrew Crook, 1666, p. , […] all that may but with any the least shew of possibility stay their mindes from thinking that true, which they heartily wish were false, but cannot think it so […]”

   “So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul.”

   “1852, Charlotte Brontë, letter cited in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, Volume 2, Chapter 10, […] you must follow the impulse of your own inspiration. If THAT commands the slaying of the victim, no bystander has a right to put out his hand to stay the sacrificial knife: but I hold you a stern priestess in these matters.”

   “Between Pegāna and the Earth flutter ten thousand thousand prayers that beat their wings against the face of Death, and never for one of them hath the hand of the Striker been stayed, nor yet have tarried the feet of the Relentless One.”

7. (transitive)To stop or delay something.

   “Now stay your strife […]”

   “For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay,”

8. (transitive)To stop or delay something.

   “The governor stayed the execution until the appeal could be heard.”

   “Without one word to deny himself, Yuan let himself be bound, his hands behind his back, and no one could stay the matter.”

   “As I curled up like a dying fish beneath his flailing boots, I managed to stay his assault long enough to tell him that I had only ever seen myself as his most loyal servant […]”

9. (transitive)To hold the attention of.
10. (obsolete, transitive)To bear up under; to endure; to hold out against; to resist.

    “She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,”

11. (obsolete, transitive)To wait for; await.

    “My father stays my coming;”

    “Let me stay the growth of his beard,”

12. (obsolete, transitive)To remain for the purpose of; to stay to take part in or be present at (a meal, ceremony etc.).

    “I stay dinner there.”

    “Some of the company staid supper, which prevented the embarrassment that must unavoidably have arisen, had the family been by themselves.”

    “How glad they had been to hear papa invite him to stay dinner, how sorry when he said it was quite out of his power […]”

13. (intransitive, obsolete)To rest; depend; rely.

    “Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:”

    “I stay here on my bond.”

14. (intransitive, obsolete)To stop; come to a stand or standstill.
15. (archaic, intransitive)To come to an end; cease.

    “That day the storm stayed.”

    “Here my commission stays,”

16. (archaic, intransitive)To dwell; linger; tarry; wait.

    “Yet not to be wholly silent of all your Charities I must stay a little on one Action, which preferr’d the Relief of Others, to the Consideration of your Self.”

17. (dated, intransitive)To make a stand; to stand firm.
18. (intransitive)To hold out, as in a race or contest; last or persevere to the end; to show staying power.

    “That horse stays well.”

19. (intransitive, obsolete)To wait; rest in patience or expectation.

    “I’ll tell thee all my whole device / When I am in my coach, which stays for us.”

    “The Father cannot stay any longer for the Portion, nor the Mother for a new Sett of Babies to play with […]”

    “"That is all. Stay—in the paper you have, look down the first money column and see if there is any reference to the Central and Suburban."”

20. (intransitive, obsolete)To wait as an attendant; give ceremonious or submissive attendance.

    “I have a servant comes with me along, That stays upon me […]”

    “Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.”

21. (India, Scotland, Singapore, South-Africa, Southern-US, colloquial, intransitive)To live; reside.

    “Hey, where do you stay at?”

22. To brace or support with a stay or stays

    “stay a mast”

23. (transitive)To incline forward, aft, or to one side by means of stays.
24. (transitive)To tack; put on the other tack.

    “to stay ship”

25. (intransitive)To change; tack; go about; be in stays, as a ship.

noun

1. Continuance or a period of time spent in a place; abode for an indefinite time.

   “I hope you enjoyed your stay in Hawaii.”

2. A postponement, especially of an execution or other punishment.

   “The governor granted a stay of execution.”

   “Later that day, however, Judge O'Kelley signed a stay of execution when Mr. Potts authorized other attorneys to renew his appeals.”

   “Just before the deadline Donald Kowalski's attorney, Jack Fena, was able to obtain a stay in order to give him time to file a motion to overturn the testing order.”

   “An appellate judge temporarily stayed the monitor’s work until a three-judge federal appeals panel can decide whether the stay should be kept in place longer while Apple undertakes a full challenge to the appointment of a monitor.”

3. (archaic)A stop; a halt; a break or cessation of action, motion, or progress.

   “stand at a stay”

   “Made of ſphear-metal, never to decay / Untill his revolution was at ſtay.”

   “Affaires of state […] seemed rather to stand at a stay.”

4. A fixed state; fixedness; stability; permanence.
5. A station or fixed anchorage for vessels.
6. Restraint of passion; prudence; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.

   “The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.”

   “Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.”

   “With prudent stay he long deferred / The rough contention.”

7. (obsolete)Hindrance; let; check.

   “They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.”

8. A prop; a support.

   “My onely strength and stay.”

   “The trees themselves serve, at the same time, as so many stays for their Vines”

   “April 27, 1823, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry.”

   “Even when the deceptive mask was torn away, and the broken-hearted parent, beholding the accursed fact, that his darling son, the fancied stay of his declining age, was enlisted against him in his brother's horrible revolt, cursed them both and died, not even then did one compunctuous visiting touch his callous heart.”

9. A piece of stiff material, such as plastic or whalebone, used to stiffen a piece of clothing.

   “Where are the stays for my collar?”

10. (in-plural)A corset.

    “Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays.”

    “When Jenny's stays are newly laced.”

11. (archaic)A fastening for a garment; a hook; a clasp; anything to hang another thing on.
12. A strong rope or wire supporting a mast, and leading from one masthead down to some other, or other part of the vessel.
13. A guy, rope, or wire supporting or stabilizing a platform, such as a bridge, a pole, such as a tentpole, the mast of a derrick, or other structural element.

    “The engineer insisted on using stays for the scaffolding.”

14. The transverse piece in a chain-cable link.

adj

1. (UK, dialectal)Steep; ascending.

   “The Castle of Edr. is naturally a great strenth situate upon the top of a high Rock perpendicular on all sides, except on the entry from the burgh, which is a stay ascent and is well fortified with strong Walls, three gates each one within another, with Drawbridges, and all necessary fortifications.”

2. (UK, dialectal)(of a roof) Steeply pitched.
3. (UK, dialectal)Difficult to negotiate; not easy to access; sheer.
4. (UK, dialectal)Stiff; upright; unbending; reserved; haughty; proud.

adv

1. (UK, dialectal)Steeply.

name

1. A surname.