"lay away" meaning in English

See lay away in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: lays away [present, singular, third-person], laying away [participle, present], laid away [participle, past], laid away [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,laid>}} lay away (third-person singular simple present lays away, present participle laying away, simple past and past participle laid away)
  1. (UK, transitive) To reserve (something) for the future. Tags: UK, transitive
    Sense id: en-lay_away-en-verb-LuTE-nk8 Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "away", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 38 22 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "away": 37 32 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 32 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 36 31 33 Coordinate_terms: lay aside, lay by, lay in, lay up, put aside, put away, put by, save, store, store away, store up
  2. (UK, transitive) To reserve (an item for sale in a store) for future purchase. Tags: UK, transitive Coordinate_terms: preorder
    Sense id: en-lay_away-en-verb-VYUkwAag Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "away", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 38 22 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "away": 37 32 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 32 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 36 31 33
  3. (transitive) To bury (someone). Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-lay_away-en-verb-hhfGUaVg Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "away", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Burial Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 38 22 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "away": 37 32 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 32 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 36 31 33 Disambiguation of Burial: 0 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: layaway [noun]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "tags": [
        "noun"
      ],
      "word": "layaway"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays away",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid away",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,laid>"
      },
      "expansion": "lay away (third-person singular simple present lays away, present participle laying away, simple past and past participle laid away)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 38 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"away\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "36 31 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "lay aside"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay by"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay in"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay up"
        },
        {
          "word": "put aside"
        },
        {
          "word": "put away"
        },
        {
          "word": "put by"
        },
        {
          "word": "save"
        },
        {
          "word": "store"
        },
        {
          "word": "store away"
        },
        {
          "word": "store up"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reserve (something) for the future."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_away-en-verb-LuTE-nk8",
      "links": [
        [
          "reserve",
          "reserve#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, transitive) To reserve (something) for the future."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 38 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"away\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "36 31 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "preorder"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              6,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Let's lay away that coat and we can pick it up next month.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reserve (an item for sale in a store) for future purchase."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_away-en-verb-VYUkwAag",
      "links": [
        [
          "purchase",
          "purchase"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, transitive) To reserve (an item for sale in a store) for future purchase."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "40 38 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"away\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "37 32 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "36 31 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 0 100",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Burial",
          "orig": "en:Burial",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              28
            ],
            [
              33,
              37
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Legend has it that they laid him away in an unmarked grave.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bury (someone)."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_away-en-verb-hhfGUaVg",
      "links": [
        [
          "bury",
          "bury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To bury (someone)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay away"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"away\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Burial"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "noun"
      ],
      "word": "layaway"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays away",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid away",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,laid>"
      },
      "expansion": "lay away (third-person singular simple present lays away, present participle laying away, simple past and past participle laid away)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "lay aside"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay by"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay in"
        },
        {
          "word": "lay up"
        },
        {
          "word": "put aside"
        },
        {
          "word": "put away"
        },
        {
          "word": "put by"
        },
        {
          "word": "save"
        },
        {
          "word": "store"
        },
        {
          "word": "store away"
        },
        {
          "word": "store up"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reserve (something) for the future."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "reserve",
          "reserve#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, transitive) To reserve (something) for the future."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "preorder"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              6,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Let's lay away that coat and we can pick it up next month.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reserve (an item for sale in a store) for future purchase."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "purchase",
          "purchase"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, transitive) To reserve (an item for sale in a store) for future purchase."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              28
            ],
            [
              33,
              37
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Legend has it that they laid him away in an unmarked grave.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bury (someone)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bury",
          "bury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To bury (someone)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay away"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lay away meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.