"lay on the line" meaning in English

See lay on the line in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-lay on the line.ogg [Australia] Forms: lays on the line [present, singular, third-person], laying on the line [participle, present], laid on the line [participle, past], laid on the line [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|lay<,,laid> on the line}} 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)
  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately. Tags: idiomatic, transitive
    Sense id: en-lay_on_the_line-en-verb-3f4Qy4M6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 90 10
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To risk. Tags: idiomatic, transitive
    Sense id: en-lay_on_the_line-en-verb-Vslj3xZ7

Download JSON data for lay on the line meaning in English (3.1kB)

{
  "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": "lay<,,laid> 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": "90 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 June 10, David Colman, “Crosses That Bear the Past”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-07-30",
          "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": [
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        [
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        [
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          "accurate"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 March 13, Oliver Thomas, “America's churches can change the world”, in USA Today, retrieved 2011-07-30",
          "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"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "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": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
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  "word": "lay on the line"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays on the line",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "laying on the line",
      "tags": [
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        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "laid on the line",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "laid on the line",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> 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": [
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      "categories": [
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 June 10, David Colman, “Crosses That Bear the Past”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-07-30",
          "text": "Finally, though, he laid it on the line. “I said to her, ‘You gotta tell me if you still love me.’”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
      ],
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        [
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To state strongly, clearly, and accurately."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
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      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "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"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 March 13, Oliver Thomas, “America's churches can change the world”, in USA Today, retrieved 2011-07-30",
          "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": [
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          "risk",
          "risk"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, transitive) To risk."
      ],
      "tags": [
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  "sounds": [
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      "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"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay on the line"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.