"pray the gay away" meaning in English

See pray the gay away in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: prays the gay away [present, singular, third-person], praying the gay away [participle, present], prayed the gay away [participle, past], prayed the gay away [past], pray away the gay [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} pray the gay away (third-person singular simple present prays the gay away, present participle praying the gay away, simple past and past participle prayed the gay away)
  1. (informal, chiefly US) To attempt to alter one's homosexuality through prayer. Tags: US, informal Derived forms: trans the gay away Related terms: conversion therapy, reparative therapy
    Sense id: en-pray_the_gay_away-en-verb-bua182hs Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "prays the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "praying the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prayed the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prayed the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pray away the gay",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pray the gay away (third-person singular simple present prays the gay away, present participle praying the gay away, simple past and past participle prayed the gay away)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
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        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "trans the gay away"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              259,
              276
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Chris Dicken, Donny Wong, The Bumpy Road to Married Bliss, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "This was my secret problem, my sin, and I earnestly hoped and prayed nearly every day of my life that it would be taken away from me. But of course, because it was an intrinsic part of me (albeit a part that I hadn't yet come to embrace), I was never able to pray the gay away.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              253,
              273
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2019, Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve, Seal Press, page 194:",
          "text": "Another part of me thought that after I was married—and living with, sleeping with, and spending time with a \"real\" girl—maybe all my feelings would magically go away. I hoped for that outcome with a renewed intensity. I guess it was my own version of \"praying the gay away,\" although it was more like \"praying the girl away.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attempt to alter one's homosexuality through prayer."
      ],
      "id": "en-pray_the_gay_away-en-verb-bua182hs",
      "links": [
        [
          "homosexuality",
          "homosexuality"
        ],
        [
          "prayer",
          "prayer"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly US) To attempt to alter one's homosexuality through prayer."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "conversion therapy"
        },
        {
          "word": "reparative therapy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pray the gay away"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "trans the gay away"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
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      "form": "prays the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "praying the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prayed the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "prayed the gay away",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pray away the gay",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pray the gay away (third-person singular simple present prays the gay away, present participle praying the gay away, simple past and past participle prayed the gay away)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "conversion therapy"
    },
    {
      "word": "reparative therapy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English rhyming phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              259,
              276
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Chris Dicken, Donny Wong, The Bumpy Road to Married Bliss, HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "This was my secret problem, my sin, and I earnestly hoped and prayed nearly every day of my life that it would be taken away from me. But of course, because it was an intrinsic part of me (albeit a part that I hadn't yet come to embrace), I was never able to pray the gay away.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              253,
              273
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2019, Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve, Seal Press, page 194:",
          "text": "Another part of me thought that after I was married—and living with, sleeping with, and spending time with a \"real\" girl—maybe all my feelings would magically go away. I hoped for that outcome with a renewed intensity. I guess it was my own version of \"praying the gay away,\" although it was more like \"praying the girl away.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attempt to alter one's homosexuality through prayer."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "homosexuality",
          "homosexuality"
        ],
        [
          "prayer",
          "prayer"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, chiefly US) To attempt to alter one's homosexuality through prayer."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pray the gay away"
}

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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.

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