lain
- 1Past participle of lie.
The old letters had lain forgotten in the attic for decades.
By morning, fresh snow had lain across the entire valley.
Note
The last step of the old pattern lie, lay, lain, and it always follows have or had. C. J. Hogarth's translation of Dostoyevsky's The Gambler shows the full set in two sentences: "I lay down upon the bed… A whole hour I must have lain thus." Lie never takes an object, so neither does lain. Things simply rest somewhere: a book had lain on the attic floor, a man had lain there for hours.
- 2Past participle of lay. Nonstandard, heard in casual speech; the standard form is laid.
"I swear I'd lain the remote right here on the arm of the chair," he grumbled.
"She's just lain the baby down for his nap, so keep it quiet," her husband whispered at the door.
Note
Here the participle of lie has wandered into the territory of lay. In careful English the form is laid: she has laid the baby down. Lain with a direct object belongs to casual speech. The object itself is the tell, because lain from lie never takes one. The book has lain there, but he has laid the remote on the chair. In writing, choose laid.
- 3To keep something hidden, or to say nothing about it.
Note
A separate word that only shares the spelling. It comes through Middle English lainen from Old Norse leyna, "to conceal," and Old English līeġnan, "to deny; conceal," both built on a Germanic word for secrecy. Unlike the participles of lie and lay, it is a full verb with its own regular forms: lains, laining, lained. Malory still uses it in Le Morte Darthur (1485), but it has since dropped out of English.
lain is a form of lie
lie, verb: To intentionally give false information in order to deceive someone. Full entry
- Spelling
- lie → lain: irregular (no -ed)
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English lainen or leynen, from Old Norse leyna ("to conceal") and Old English līeġnan ("to deny; conceal"); both trace back to Proto-Germanic *laugnijaną, from *laugnō ("secrecy").