"lay" meaning in English

See lay in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /leɪ/ Audio: en-us-lay.ogg [US] Forms: lay [singular], lays [plural]
enPR: lā Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. : This short section needs someone to add to it.
    Sense id: simple-lay-en-noun-a2VIwlFS Categories (other): Section stubs

Verb

IPA: /leɪ/ Audio: en-us-lay.ogg [US] Forms: lay [canonical], lays [third-person, singular], laid [past], laid [past, participle], laying [present, participle]
enPR: lā Head templates: {{verb2|lay|lays|laid|laid|laying}} [POS TABLE]
  1. When you lay something, you place it down flat.
    Sense id: simple-lay-en-verb-DDIu6b0A
  2. When an animal lays an egg, it makes and places it outside its body.
    Sense id: simple-lay-en-verb-wywlHyx~
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lay",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lays",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay",
        "2": "lays",
        "3": "laid",
        "4": "laid",
        "5": "laying"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Sally carefully laid out her clothing on the bed."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When you lay something, you place it down flat."
      ],
      "id": "simple-lay-en-verb-DDIu6b0A",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "When an animal lays an egg, it makes and places it outside its body."
      ],
      "id": "simple-lay-en-verb-wywlHyx~",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "lā"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/leɪ/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/leI/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-lay.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lay",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lays",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Section stubs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        ":\n This short section needs someone to add to it."
      ],
      "id": "simple-lay-en-noun-a2VIwlFS"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "lā"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/leɪ/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/leI/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-lay.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lay",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lays",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay",
        "2": "lays",
        "3": "laid",
        "4": "laid",
        "5": "laying"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Sally carefully laid out her clothing on the bed."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When you lay something, you place it down flat."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When an animal lays an egg, it makes and places it outside its body."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "lā"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/leɪ/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/leI/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-lay.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lay",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "lays",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Section stubs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        ":\n This short section needs someone to add to it."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "lā"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/leɪ/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/leI/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-lay.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lay meaning in English (1.4kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). 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.