Stay
King James Dictionary [1]
STAY, pret. staid, for stayed. L., to stand.
1. To remain to continue in a place to abide for any indefinite time. Do you stay here, while I go to the next house. Stay here a week. We staid at the Hotel Montmorenci.
Stay, I command you stay and hear me first.
2. To continue in a state.
The flames augment, and stay at their full highth, then languish to decay.
3. To wait to attend to forbear to act.
I stay for Turnus.
Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Ruth 1 .
4. To stop to stand still.
She would command the hasty sun to stay.
5. To dwell.
I must stay a little on one action.
6. To rest to rely to confide in to trust.
Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression, and stay thereon-- Isaiah 30 .
STAY, pret. and pp. staid, for stayed.
1. To stop to hold from proceeding to withhold to restrain.
All that may stay the mind from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false.
To stay these sudden gusts of passion.
2. To delay to obstruct to hinder from proceeding.
Your ships are staid at Venice.
I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me to be new.
3. To keep from departure as, you might have staid me here. 4. To stop from motion or falling to prop to hold up to support.
Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands. Exodus 17 .
Sallows and reeds for vineyards useful found to stay thy vines.
5. To support from sinking to sustain with strength as, to take a luncheon to stay the stomach.
STAY, n.
1. Continuance in a place abode for a time indefinite as, you make a short stay in this city.
Embrace the hero, and his stay implore.
2. Stand stop cessation of motion or progression.
Affairs of state seemd rather to stand at a stay.
But in this sense, we now use stand to be at a stand.
3. Stop obstruction hinderance from progress.
Grievd with each step, tormented with each stay.
4. Restraint of passion moderation caution steadiness sobriety.
With prudent stay, he long deferrd the rough contention.
5. A fixed state.
Alas, what stay is there in human state!
6. Prop support.
Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.
My only strength and stay!
The Lord is my stay. Psalms 18 .
The stay and the staff, the means of supporting and preserving life. Isaiah 3 .
7. Steadiness of conduct. 8. In the rigging of a ship, a large strong rope employed to support the mast, by being extended from its upper end to the stem of the ship. The fore-stay reaches from the foremast head towards the bowsprit end the main-stay extends to the ships stem the mizen-stay is stretched to a collar on the main-mast, above the quarter deck, &c.
Stays, in seamanship, implies the operation of going about or changing the course of a ship, with a shifting of the sails. To be in stays, is to lie with the head to the wind, and the sails so arranged as to check her progress.
To miss stays, to fail in the attempt to go about.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( v. i.) To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
(2): ( v. i.) To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support.
(3): ( n.) A large, strong rope, employed to support a mast, by being extended from the head of one mast down to some other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship.
(4): ( v. i.) To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist successfully.
(5): ( v. i.) To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold.
(6): ( v. i.) To hinde/; to delay; to detain; to keep back.
(7): ( v. i.) To remain for the purpose of; to wait for.
(8): ( v. i.) To cause to cease; to put an end to.
(9): ( v. i.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler.
(10): ( v. i.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind.
(11): ( v. i.) To remain; to continue in a place; to abide fixed for a space of time; to stop; to stand still.
(12): ( v. i.) To continue in a state.
(13): ( v. i.) To wait; to attend; to forbear to act.
(14): ( v. i.) To dwell; to tarry; to linger.
(15): ( v. i.) To rest; to depend; to rely; to stand; to insist.
(16): ( v. i.) To come to an end; to cease; as, that day the storm stayed.
(17): ( v. i.) To hold out in a race or other contest; as, a horse stays well.
(18): ( v. i.) To change tack; as a ship.
(19): ( n.) That which serves as a prop; a support.
(20): ( n.) A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.
(21): ( n.) Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.
(22): ( n.) Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.
(23): ( n.) Hindrance; let; check.
(24): ( n.) Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.
(25): ( n.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [3]
"to hold fast, hold back," is used in the sense of detaining in Luke 4:42 , "would have stayed (Him)," RV. See Hold.
has the meaning "to wait in a place, to stay," in Acts 19:22 . See Heed , Hold , Mark.
"to hinder," is rendered "stayed" in Acts 27:43 , RV (AV, "kept"); so in 2—Peter 2:16 , RV (AV, "forbad"). See Hinder.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
stā : Is derived from two distinct forms. From one derivation it has the meaning "to stand" and so "to continue in one place" ( Genesis 8:10; Leviticus 13:23 , Leviticus 13:28 , etc.), "to forbear to act" (Rth 1:13), "to rest," "to be trustful" (King James Version, the English Revised Version Isaiah 10:20; see below). Transitively it means "to cause to stay," "to hinder" ( Daniel 4:35 , etc.), and "stay" as a noun means "cessation of progress"' ( Leviticus 13:5 , Leviticus 13:37 ), "sojourn." From the second derivation the verb means "to support" ( Exodus 17:12; 1 Kings 22:35; Song of Solomon 2:5 ), while the noun means "a support" ( 1 Kings 10:19; Isaiah 3:1 , etc.). the American Standard Revised Version has judged obsolete "stay on" in the sense "trust in," and for "stay" has substituted "lean" in Isaiah 10:20 and "rely" in Isaiah 30:12; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 50:10 , although "stay themselves upon" (= "support themselves by") has been kept in Isaiah 48:2 . Otherwise the Revised Version (British and American) has made few alterations. But such as have been made ("tarry ye" for "stay yourselves" in Isaiah 29:9 and the American Standard Revised Version "restrain" for "stay" in Job 37:4 ) could have been carried farther with advantage.
