stay

• enPR: stā, IPA^(key): /steɪ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English steyen, staien, from Old French estayer, estaier (“to fix, prop up, support, stay”), from estaye, estaie (“a prop, stay”), from Middle Dutch staeye (“a prop, stay”), a contracted form of staede, stade ("a prop, stay, help, aid"; compare Middle Dutch staeyen, staeden (“to make firm, stay, support, hold still, stabilise”)), from Old Dutch *stad (“a site, place, location, standing”), from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“a standing, place”), from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“standing”). Influenced by Old English stæġ ("a stay, rope"; see below). Cognate with Old English stede, stæde (“a place, spot, locality, fixed position, station, site, standing, status, position of a moving body, stopping, standing still, stability, fixity, firmness, steadfastness”), Swedish stödja (“to prop, support, brace, hold up, bolster”), Icelandic stöðug (“continuous, stable”). More at stead, steady.

Sense of "remain, continue" may be due to later influence from Old French ester, esteir (“to stand, be, continue, remain”), from Latin stāre (“stand”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root above; however, derivation from this root is untenable based on linguistic and historical grounds[1].

An alternative etymology derives Old French estaye, estaie, from Old Frankish *staka (“stake, post”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake, bar, stick, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“rod, pole, stick”), making it cognate with Old English staca (“pin, stake”), Old English stician (“to stick, be placed, lie, remain fixed”). Cognate with Albanian shtagë (“a long stick, a pole”). More at stake, stick.

stay (third-person singular simple present stays, present participle staying, simple past and past participle stayed)

1. (transitive) To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.
   • c. 1592,, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act III, Scene 7,

     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:

   • 1611 King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 17.12,

     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.

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, “Directions for Writing the most Vsual and Legible Hands for Women”, p. 17,

     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.

   • 1725, John Dryden (translator), Virgil’s Husbandry, or an Essay on the Georgics, London, Book 2, p. 37,

     Sallows and Reeds, on Banks of Rivers born,

     Remain to cut; for Vineyards useful found,

     To stay thy Vines and fence thy fruitful Ground.

2. (transitive) To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
   • 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock, Chapter 20,

     […] 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 […]

3. (transitive) To stop; detain; keep back; delay; hinder.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 2,

     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 […]

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, Book 3, Chapter 5, p. 207,

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

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book 1, Chapter 6,

     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.

   • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 44,

     […] 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 […]

   • 2010, Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question, New York: Bloomsbury, Chapter 9,

     She rose to leave but Libor stayed her.

4. (transitive) To restrain; withhold; check; stop.
   • 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 […]

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 1 Samuel 24.7,

     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.

5. (transitive) To cause to cease; to put an end to.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III, Scene 1,

     Now stay your strife […]

   • 1847, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Threnody” in Poems, Boston: James Munroe, p. 242,

     For flattering planets seemed to say

     This child should ills of ages stay,

6. (transitive) To put off; defer; postpone; delay; keep back.

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

   • 1935, Pearl S. Buck, A House Divided, London: Methuen, Part 1, p. 137,

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

   • 2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould’s Book of Fish, New York: Grove, “The Leatherjacket,” pp. 187-188,

     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 […]

7. (transitive) To hold the attention of. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought):
8. (transitive, obsolete) To bear up under; to endure; to hold out against; to resist.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 1,

     She will not stay the siege of loving terms,

     Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,

9. (transitive, obsolete) To wait for; await.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene 2,

     My father stays my coming;

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III, Scene 2,

     Let me stay the growth of his beard,

10. (transitive, obsolete) To remain for the purpose of; to wait for.
    • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act III, Scene 2,

      I stay dinner there.

    • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 7,

      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 […]

11. (intransitive, obsolete) To rest; depend; rely.
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah 30.12,

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

    • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 2,

      I stay here on my bond.

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

    That day the storm stayed.

    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act II, Scene 4,

      Here my commission stays,

14. (intransitive, archaic) To dwell; linger; tarry; wait.
    • 1700 John Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, dedicatory epistle,

      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.

15. (intransitive, dated) To make a stand; to stand firm.
16. (intransitive, obsolete) To hold out, as in a race or contest; last or persevere to the end.

    That horse stays well.

17. (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.

    • 1590 Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 10, p. 140,

      She would commaund the hasty Sunne to stay,

      Or backward turne his course from heuen's hight,

    • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, London: Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, Act IV, p. 60,

      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.

    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

      “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.

18. (intransitive, obsolete) To wait; rest in patience or expectation.
    • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 4,

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

    • 1693 John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A. & J. Churchill, p. 260,

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

19. (intransitive, obsolete, used with on or upon) To wait as an attendant; give ceremonious or submissive attendance.
    • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act IV, Scene 1,

      I have a servant comes with me along,

      That stays upon me […]

    • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3,

      Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

20. (intransitive) To continue to have a particular quality.

    Wear gloves so your hands stay warm.

    • 1700, John Dryden (translator), Fables Ancient and Modern, “MELEAGER AND ATALANTA, Out of the Eighth Book OF OVID’S Metamorphosis,” p. 118,

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

    • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 2, Chapter 30,

      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.

    • 1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, 1960, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 210,

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

    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

21. (intransitive, Southern US, African American Vernacular, colloquial, nonstandard) To live; reside

    Hey, where do you stay at?

• (prop; support; sustain): bear, prop up, uphold
• (to sustain with strength):
• (stop; detain; hinder): See also Thesaurus:hinder
• (restrain; withhold; check): curb; repress, stifle; See also Thesaurus:curb
• (cause to cease): cancel, cease, discontinue, halt, stop, terminate; See also Thesaurus:end
• (put off; defer; postpone): See also Thesaurus:procrastinate
• (hold the attention of):
• (bear up under): endure, resist; See also Thesaurus:persevere
• (wait for): await, wait for, wait on; See also Thesaurus:wait for
• (remain for the purpose of):
• (rest; depend; rely): See also Thesaurus:rely
• (come to a stand or standstill): blin, brake, desist, halt, stop; See also Thesaurus:stop
• (come to an end): cease; See also Thesaurus:desist or Thesaurus:end
• (dwell; linger; tarry; wait): See also Thesaurus:tarry
• (make a stand): contend, break a lance, stand firm, take a stand
• (last or persevere to the end): See also Thesaurus:persist
• (remain in a particular place): abide, sojourn; See also Thesaurus:sojourn
• (rest in patience or expectation): wait; See also Thesaurus:wait
• (wait as an attendant): attend, bestand, serve; See also Thesaurus:serve
• (continue to have a particular quality): continue, keep, remain
• (live; reside): See also Thesaurus:reside

• abide
• belive
• continue
• dwell
• live
• remain
• reside
• tarry

stay (plural stays)

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

   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.

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

   stand at a stay

   • (Can we date this quote?) Template:Milton

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) Hayward

     Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay.

4. A fixed state; fixedness; stability; permanence.
5. (nautical) A station or fixed anchorage for vessels.
6. Restraint of passion; prudence; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Herbert

     Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Philips

     With prudent stay he long deferred / The rough contention.

7. (obsolete) Hindrance; let; check.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Robynson (More's Utopia)

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

From Middle English stay, from Old French estaye, estaie (“a prop, a stay”), from Middle Dutch staeye (“a prop, stay”), a contracted form of staede, stade ("a prop, stay, help, aid"; compare Middle Dutch staeyen, staeden (“to make firm, stay, support, hold still, stabilise”)), from Old Dutch *stad (“a site, place, location, standing”), from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“a standing, place”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”). See above.

stay (plural stays)

1. A prop; a support.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     My only strength and stay.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Addison

     Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Samuel Taylor Coleridge

     Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry.

   • 1831, Peter Leicester, Arthur of Britanny (page 18)

     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.

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

   Where are the stays for my collar?

3. (plural) A corset
   • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:

     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.

4. (archaic) A fastening for a garment; a hook; a clasp; anything to hang another thing on.

• gay for the stay
• staybolt
• staycation

From Middle English stay, from Old English stæġ (“stay, a rope supporting a mast”), from Proto-Germanic *stagą (“stay, rope”), from Proto-Indo-European *stek-, *stāk- (“stand, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”). Cognate with Dutch stag (“stay”), German Stag (“stay”), Swedish stag (“stay”), Icelandic stag (“stay”).

stay (plural stays)

1. (nautical) A strong rope supporting a mast, and leading from one masthead down to some other, or other part of the vessel.
2. 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.

3. (chain-cable) The transverse piece in a link.

• mastrope

• (rope supporting a mast): backstay, forestay, mainstay, triatic stay

stay (third-person singular simple present stays, present participle staying, simple past and past participle stayed)

1. To brace or support with a stay or stays

   stay a mast

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

   to stay ship

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

From Middle English *steȝe, from Old English *stǣġe, an apocopated variant of Old English stǣġel (“steep, abrupt”), from Proto-Germanic *staigilaz (“climbing, ascending, sloping, steep”), see sty.

• stey, stee, steigh, sti

stay (comparative stayer or more stay, superlative stayest or most stay)

1. (Britain dialectal) Steep; ascending.
   • 1908, Publications of the Scottish History Society - Volume 53 - Page 121:

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

stay (comparative stayer or more stay, superlative stayest or most stay)

1. (Britain dialectal) Steeply.

• stay at OneLook Dictionary Search
• stay in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Yats, tays, yats

• staye, stey

From Old English stæġ (“stay, a rope supporting a mast”), from Proto-Germanic *stagą (“stay, rope”), from Proto-Indo-European *stek-, *stāk- (“stand, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *stā- (“to stand”).

stay (plural stayes)

1. (nautical) A stay (rope).

• Scots: stay
• English: stay