stay

Less common meanings

6. 6
   court ordernouncountable

   A postponement or suspension of a legal proceeding or punishment, especially an execution, by judicial or executive order.

   The governor granted a last-minute stay of execution.

   The appeals court issued a stay, halting the deportation while the case is reviewed.

   UsageCourts grant or issue a stay; set phrase a stay of execution.

   Similarreprieve, postponement, suspension, deferment, deferral

   Note

   A stay of execution halts a sentence; a stay of proceedings suspends the case itself. A stay is usually temporary, so the live question is often whether it "should be kept in place longer". The New York Times asked exactly that in 2014 about Apple's challenge to a court monitor. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • A stay of execution suspends the carrying out of a sentence. en.wikipedia.org
   • A stay of proceedings suspends further proceedings in a case. en.wikipedia.org
   • The New York Times used the quoted wording in 2014 concerning Apple's challenge to a court monitor. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   pause (case)verbtransitive

   To postpone or delay something; to defer an action or hold it back until a later time.

   The court stayed the eviction while the appeal was heard.

   Officials voted to stay the demolition until the review was complete.

   Similarsuspend, postpone, delay, defer, halt

   Note

   This sense lives well beyond the courtroom, even though its best-known setting is a court's postponement. Pearl S. Buck's A House Divided (1935) says "no one could stay the matter". In Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish (2001), a narrator manages "to stay his assault" long enough to speak. Both hold something off for a time; ending it for good belongs to the "stop or end" meaning. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Pearl S. Buck wrote A House Divided, first published in 1935. en.wikipedia.org
   • A House Divided contains the exact quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
   • Richard Flanagan wrote Gould's Book of Fish. groveatlantic.com
   • Gould's Book of Fish was first published in 2001. penguin.com.au
   • The first-person narrator uses the quoted words while describing delaying an assault long enough to speak. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   haltverbtransitive

   To stop, hold back, or check someone or something; to halt the course or progress of something, or bring it to an end.

   A guard stayed the travelers at the gate until their papers were checked.

   No barricade could stay the advancing crowd for long.

   Similarhalt, stop, check, hold, restrain

   Note

   The sense behind stay one's hand, the set phrase for stopping just short of a blow or a deed. It is formal and literary now, but older writers used it freely. Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has ships held in port ("Your ships are stay'd at Venice"). John Evelyn's Diary has business that "staid me in London almost a week". Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Stay one's hand can mean refraining from a blow or harmful deed. en.wikisource.org
   • Older writers used stay one's hand figuratively to mean preventing an action. en.wikisource.org
   • Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew contains the quoted line about ships detained at Venice; the speaker is Tranio, impersonating Lucentio. folgerdigitaltexts.org
   • The contracted spelling stay'd is attested in the Shakespeare quotation. en.wiktionary.org
   • John Evelyn's Diary contains the quoted wording about business detaining him in London almost a week. gutenberg.org
9. 9
   satisfy (hunger)verbtransitive

   To support or sustain something; to supply it with strength, or to satisfy a need temporarily.

   She drank a glass of milk to stay her hunger before the meeting.

   Hope alone seemed to stay the survivors until the rescue boats arrived.

   UsageMostly stay one's hunger or stay one's stomach.

   Similarsustain, fortify, nourish, support

   Note

   Its classic object is the stomach: to stay one's stomach is to take the edge off hunger for a while. Walter Scott's Woodstock (1826) makes a joke of the phrase. Someone devours a whole loaf, and it "has not staid his stomach for a minute". Staid there is the older past form, now obsolete; modern English writes stayed. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Stay one's stomach means temporarily relieving hunger. en.wiktionary.org
   • Walter Scott wrote Woodstock. gutenberg.org
   • Woodstock was first published in 1826. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
   • Woodstock contains the quoted description of someone eating a whole loaf without satisfying his hunger; Joceline speaks the words. gutenberg.org
   • Staid is an obsolete past form of stay; the standard modern form is stayed. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    stiff stripnouncountable

    A strip of stiff material, such as plastic or whalebone, sewn or slipped into a garment to stiffen part of it.

    Remove the collar stays before putting the shirt in the wash.

    A flexible stay sewn into each seam keeps the strapless bodice from collapsing.

    Similarstiffener, bone

11. 11
    guy ropenouncountable

    A strong rope, cable, or wire that supports or steadies a ship's mast, a pole, a tower, or another structure.

    A steel stay anchors the chimney against winter gales.

    The bridge's deck hangs from stays fanning out from twin pylons.

    Similarguy, cable, wire, brace

    Note

    Ashore the rigging word becomes an engineer's. Anything tall or slender held by tensioned lines is stayed, whether a derrick mast, a tent pole or scaffolding. In a cable-stayed bridge the stays run straight from the towers to the deck. A suspension bridge instead hangs its deck from draped main cables. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Cable-stayed bridges have stays running directly from towers to deck. rosap.ntl.bts.gov
    • A suspension bridge's deck hangs from main cables draped over towers. wsdot.wa.gov
12. 12
    upright supportnouncountable

    A prop or support that holds something up or keeps it steady.

    Carpenters fitted a diagonal stay to brace the fence post.

    In his last years, his daughter was the stay of the household.

    Similarprop, support, brace, strut, mainstay

    Note

    Figuratively it names the person others lean on. Milton pairs it with strength in "My onely strength and stay". Coleridge calls Lord Liverpool "the single stay of this ministry". A father counts his son "the fancied stay of his declining age". Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Milton uses the exact words “My onely strength and stay” in Paradise Lost. resources.saylor.org
    • Coleridge calls Lord Liverpool “the single stay of this ministry”. gutenberg.org
    • The quoted description concerns a son regarded as his ageing father's hoped-for support. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    steady (wall)verbtransitive

    To prop up, support, or steady something so it does not fall or give way, especially by bracing it with stays such as ropes, wires, or rods.

    The builders stayed the old wall with heavy wooden beams.

    The campers used ropes to stay the tent poles against the strong wind.

    Similarbrace, prop, support, steady, shore

    Note

    Here the word keeps the meaning of its source, the prop-and-support sense that the sense of remaining probably grew from. The King James Bible of 1611 has Aaron and Hur, who "stayed up his hands". A modern reader could mistake that phrasal use for staying awake. The Compleat Servant-Maid, attributed to Hannah Woolley, tells writers to "stay the paper" with the left hand, which is steadying rather than lifting and is the other half of the sense. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
    • The King James Bible describes Aaron and Hur as having 'stayed up his hands'. en.wikisource.org
    • The instruction appears in The Compleat Servant-Maid, an unauthorized work attributed to Woolley; it should be attributed to the book rather than confidently to her. en.wikipedia.org
    • The writing instruction uses 'stay the paper' for steadying it with the left hand. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verbdatedintransitive

    To make a stand; to hold one's ground firmly, especially against attack or pressure.

    Similarhold, stand, resist

    Oppositeretreat, flee, yield

    Note

    The image here is of something braced against a push, and it comes from Old French estayer, 'to prop up, support'. The verb takes no object: a line simply stays. It is now dated, and everyday prose says stand firm or hold one's ground instead. Keep it apart from lasting to the end, which is about endurance through a contest, not refusing to give way. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • This sense derives from Old French estayer, meaning to prop up or support. en.wiktionary.org
    • Stay meaning to make a stand is intransitive. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    laced underwearnouncountableplural

    A corset, a stiffened undergarment laced around the torso to shape the waist, usually in the plural.

    She unlaced her stays with a sigh of relief after the ball.

    The shop sold stays, petticoats, and other ladies' garments.

    Similarcorset

    Note

    This corset sense usually lives in the plural, like trousers: one laces one's stays. Matthew Prior's "When Jenny's stays are newly laced" (1718) shows the usual verb. The garment probably takes its name from the stiffening strips sewn through it, so it is named for what makes it rigid. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The plural is usual, but singular stay also occurs. The Workwoman's Guide uses it for the garment, distinguishing it from its stay-bones. gutenberg.org
    • Matthew Prior wrote the quoted line. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
    • The quotation dates to the first publication in 1718. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
    • Stiffening strips were inserted and stitched into the garment. research.colonialwilliamsburg.org
16. 16
    nounobsoleteuncountable

    Restraint of one's passions, shown in prudent, cautious, moderate, and sober conduct.

    The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.

    1622, Francis, Lord Verulam

    Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.

    1633, George Herbert, The Church Porch

    Similarrestraint, prudence, composure, self-control, sobriety

    Oppositerecklessness, rashness, impetuosity

    Note

    The idea of a prop turned inward, so that what holds a person steady is self-command. It belongs to older literary English and reads best among the virtues it keeps company with: Francis Bacon's "wisdom, stay, and moderation of the King's spirit of government", John Philips's "prudent stay", George Herbert's "bounds and stays". Standing alone, it is easily heard as a period spent somewhere. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Bacon wrote “wisdom, stay, and moderation of the King’s spirit of government” in his history of Henry VII. philological.cal.bham.ac.uk
    • John Philips used the phrase prudent stay. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
    • George Herbert used the phrase bounds and stays. divinity.duke.edu
17. 17
    nounarchaic

    A halt or pause; a stopping or interruption of action, movement, or progress.

    Made of ſphear-metal, never to decay / Untill his revolution was at ſtay.

    1646, John Milton, “Another on the ſame”

    Note

    Older prose keeps this noun mostly in the phrase at a stay, meaning at a standstill. In John Hayward's The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, affairs of state "seemed rather to stand at a stay". Milton writes of a revolution that was "at stay". It is archaic in general use, though the idea of a halt survives in the legal postponement. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The noun meaning a standstill occurs chiefly in the phrase “at a stay”. archive.org
    • John Hayward's The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt contains the quoted wording about affairs of state. en.wiktionary.org
    • Milton describes a revolution as “at stay”, in “Another on the Same”. gutenberg.org
    • The sense of stopping survives in the legal suspension of proceedings. archive.org
18. 18
    verbarchaicintransitive

    To come to an end; to cease happening or continuing.

    Here my commission stays,

    1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt,”

    That day the storm stayed.

    Note

    A trap for readers of older texts: here the word means the opposite of continuing. "That day the storm stayed" says the storm ended, not that it lingered. Shakespeare's "Here my commission stays" means the commission goes no further. It is the intransitive partner of the "stop or end" meaning: a storm stays when something stays it. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • In this intransitive sense, “stay” means to cease; the storm example illustrates its ending. en.wiktionary.org
    • “Here my commission stays” occurs in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, spoken by the Sheriff. folger.edu
    • The Shakespeare quotation means that the commission ends or extends no further. archive.org
    • The intransitive sense “cease” corresponds to the transitive sense “cause to cease”. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    nounarchaic

    A fastening for a garment, such as a hook or clasp; also anything on which another thing may be hung.

    Note

    An archaic garment word for a hook or clasp, and more broadly for anything another thing hangs from. It should not be confused with the corset or with the stiffening strips sewn into clothes. Those stiffen a garment, while this one fastens it or holds something up. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • An archaic sense of stay denotes a garment fastening, hook or clasp, and more broadly something from which another thing hangs. archive.org
    • The fastening sense is distinct from the plural sense meaning a corset. archive.org
    • Garment stiffeners provide rigidity, a different function from fastening or suspending something. en.wikipedia.org
20. 20
    verbobsolete

    To hold the attention of someone, keeping them engaged or absorbed.
21. 21
    nounarchaic

    A condition of fixedness or stability; the quality of being settled and permanent.
22. 22
    verb

    To use stays to make a mast lean forward, aft, or sideways.
23. 23
    verb

    Of a sailing vessel, to tack or go about onto the other tack; also, to bring a vessel about in this way.
24. 24
    noun

    The transverse piece fitted across the middle of a link in a chain cable.
25. 25
    verbobsolete

    To withstand pressure or attack without giving way.

    She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,

    c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”
26. 26
    verbobsolete

    To wait for the coming of someone or something, such as an event or a result.

    My father stays my coming;

    c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”
27. 27
    verbobsolete

    To remain long enough to be present for an event, like dinner or a service.

    I stay dinner there.

    c. 1593, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third:”
28. 28
    verbobsolete

    To lean on or count on something for support.

    I stay here on my bond.

    c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”
29. 29
    verbobsolete

    To cease moving and remain still.
30. 30
    verbobsolete

    To wait on someone as a servant or attendant.

    Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

    c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”
31. 31
    noun

    A fixed place where ships lie at anchor.
32. 32
    nounobsolete

    Something that holds back or obstructs progress.

    They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.

    1551, Thomas More, A Fruteful
33. 33
    adjectivedialectalUK

    Steep, or rising upward.
34. 34
    adjectivedialectalUK

    Of a roof, rising at a sharp angle.
35. 35
    adjectivedialectalUK

    Stiff or erect in posture, or reserved, aloof, or haughty in manner.
36. 36
    adverbdialectalUK

    At a steep angle.