STAY, v.i. pret. staid, for stayed. [L., to stand.] 1. To remain; to continue in a place; to abide for any indefinite time. Do you stay here, while I go to the next house. Stay here a week. We staid at the Hotel Montmorenci.Stay, I command you; stay and hear me first.2. To continue in a state.The flames augment, and stay at their full highth, then languish to decay.3. To wait; to attend; to forbear to act.I stay for Turnus.Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Ruth 1. 4. To stop; to stand still.She would command the hasty sun to stay.5. To dwell.I must stay a little on one action.6. To rest; to rely; to confide in; to trust.Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression, and stay thereon--Isaiah 30.STAY, v.t. pret. and pp. staid, for stayed. 1. To stop; to hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain.All that may stay the mind from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false.To stay these sudden gusts of passion.2. To delay; to obstruct; to hinder from proceeding.Your ships are staid at Venice.I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me to be new.3. To keep from departure; as, you might have staid me here.4. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to hold up; to support.Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands. Exodus 17.Sallows and reeds for vineyards useful found to stay thy vines.5. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; as, to take a luncheon to stay the stomach.STAY, n. 1. Continuance in a place; abode for a time indefinite; as, you make a short stay in this city.Embrace the hero, and his stay implore.2. Stand; stop; cessation of motion or progression.Affairs of state seemd rather to stand at a stay.[But in this sense, we now use stand; to be at a stand.]3. Stop; obstruction; hinderance from progress.Grievd with each step, tormented with each stay.4. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.With prudent stay, he long deferrd the rough contention.5. A fixed state.Alas, what stay is there in human state!6. Prop; support.Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.My only strength and stay!The Lord is my stay. Psalm 18.The stay and the staff, the means of supporting and preserving life. Isaiah 3.7. Steadiness of conduct.8. In the rigging of a ship, a large strong rope employed to support the mast, by being extended from its upper end to the stem of the ship. The fore-stay reaches from the foremast head towards the bowsprit end; the main-stay extends to the ships stem; the mizen-stay is stretched to a collar on the main-mast, above the quarter deck, &c.Stays, in seamanship, implies the operation of going about or changing the course of a ship, with a shifting of the sails. To be in stays, is to lie with the head to the wind, and the sails so arranged as to check her progress.To miss stays, to fail in the attempt to go about. |
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In celebration of Noah Webster's Birthday (October 16, 2009), we have prepared an updated website. 
