See lay on the line in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays on the line",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying on the line",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid on the line",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid on the line",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "<,,laid>",
"head": "~on the line:~"
},
"expansion": "lay on the line (third-person singular simple present lays on the line, present participle laying on the line, simple past and past participle laid on the line)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "59 41",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "79 21",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "90 10",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
78,
82
],
[
93,
104
]
],
"ref": "1957 June 10, “The Budget: Remember Guam!”, in Time:",
"text": "Martin presented the list to the 30-member House Republican Policy Committee, laid the facts on the line in cold political terms.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nThe way I felt about my approach to him—I just wanted to lay it on the line, get an answer & split, I was so nervous. I didn't have any confidence to flirt my way into getting him to my place. Joyce said I can't just take the male role like that."
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
16,
34
]
],
"ref": "1977, Wayne St. John, “Something's Up (Love Me Like The First Time)”:",
"text": "Give it to me / Lay it on the line / Help me get / don’t let this be the end",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
20,
24
],
[
28,
39
]
],
"ref": "2011 June 10, David Colman, “Crosses That Bear the Past”, in New York Times, retrieved 30 Jul 2011:",
"text": "Finally, though, he laid it on the line. “I said to her, ‘You gotta tell me if you still love me.’”",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
],
"id": "en-lay_on_the_line-en-verb-3f4Qy4M6",
"links": [
[
"strong",
"strong"
],
[
"clear",
"clear"
],
[
"accurate",
"accurate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
38,
42
],
[
66,
77
]
],
"ref": "1959 July 5, “National Affairs: The Democratic Governors in 1960”, in Time:",
"text": "California's Edmund Gerald Brown, 54, laid his political prestige on the line with a sheaf of legislative proposals.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
63,
67
],
[
111,
122
]
],
"ref": "2011 March 13, Oliver Thomas, “America's churches can change the world”, in USA Today, retrieved 30 Jul 2011:",
"text": "It was King and his network of Christian and Jewish clergy who laid their jobs and, in some cases, their lives on the line until my fellow Southerners were too ashamed and embarrassed to continue their wickedness.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To risk."
],
"id": "en-lay_on_the_line-en-verb-Vslj3xZ7",
"links": [
[
"risk",
"risk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, transitive) To risk."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-lay on the line.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7d/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
]
}
],
"word": "lay on the line"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays on the line",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying on the line",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid on the line",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid on the line",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "<,,laid>",
"head": "~on the line:~"
},
"expansion": "lay on the line (third-person singular simple present lays on the line, present participle laying on the line, simple past and past participle laid on the line)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
78,
82
],
[
93,
104
]
],
"ref": "1957 June 10, “The Budget: Remember Guam!”, in Time:",
"text": "Martin presented the list to the 30-member House Republican Policy Committee, laid the facts on the line in cold political terms.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nThe way I felt about my approach to him—I just wanted to lay it on the line, get an answer & split, I was so nervous. I didn't have any confidence to flirt my way into getting him to my place. Joyce said I can't just take the male role like that."
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
16,
34
]
],
"ref": "1977, Wayne St. John, “Something's Up (Love Me Like The First Time)”:",
"text": "Give it to me / Lay it on the line / Help me get / don’t let this be the end",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
20,
24
],
[
28,
39
]
],
"ref": "2011 June 10, David Colman, “Crosses That Bear the Past”, in New York Times, retrieved 30 Jul 2011:",
"text": "Finally, though, he laid it on the line. “I said to her, ‘You gotta tell me if you still love me.’”",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
],
"links": [
[
"strong",
"strong"
],
[
"clear",
"clear"
],
[
"accurate",
"accurate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
38,
42
],
[
66,
77
]
],
"ref": "1959 July 5, “National Affairs: The Democratic Governors in 1960”, in Time:",
"text": "California's Edmund Gerald Brown, 54, laid his political prestige on the line with a sheaf of legislative proposals.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
63,
67
],
[
111,
122
]
],
"ref": "2011 March 13, Oliver Thomas, “America's churches can change the world”, in USA Today, retrieved 30 Jul 2011:",
"text": "It was King and his network of Christian and Jewish clergy who laid their jobs and, in some cases, their lives on the line until my fellow Southerners were too ashamed and embarrassed to continue their wickedness.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To risk."
],
"links": [
[
"risk",
"risk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, transitive) To risk."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-lay on the line.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7d/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/En-au-lay_on_the_line.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
]
}
],
"word": "lay on the line"
}
Download raw JSONL data for lay on the line meaning in English (3.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 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.