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staying |
1 definition found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Stay \Stay\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stayed}or {Staid}; p. pr & vb n. {Staying}.] [OF. estayer, F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr OF estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop, probably fr OD stade, staeye a prop, akin to E. stead; or cf stay a rope to support a mast. Cf {Staid}, a., {Stay}, v. i.] 1. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up to support. Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side --Ex. xvii. 12. Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. --Dryden. 2. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time. He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute. --Sir W. Scott. 3. To bear up under to endure; to support; to resist successfully. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes. --Shak. 4. To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold Him backward overthrew and down him stayed With their rude hands grisly grapplement. --Spenser. All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartly wish were false. --Hooker. 5. To hinde?; to delay; to detain; to keep back Your ships are stayed at Venice. --Shak. This business staid me in London almost a week. --Evelyn. I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new --Locke. 6. To remain for the purpose of to wait for ``I stay dinner there.'' --Shak. 7. To cause to cease; to put an end to Stay your strife. --Shak. For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay. --Emerson. 8. (Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler. 9. (Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind. {To stay a mast} (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to one side by the stays and backstays.
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