stay

stay¹ (st

)

v. stayed, stay·ing, stays

v.intr.

1. To continue to be in a place or condition: stay home; stay calm.

2. To remain or sojourn as a guest or lodger: stayed at a motel.

3. To stop moving; halt.

4. To wait; pause.

5. To endure or persist: stayed with the original plan.

6. To keep up in a race or contest: tried to stay with the lead runner.

7. Games To meet a bet in poker without raising it.

8. To stand one's ground; remain firm.

9. Archaic To cease from a specified activity.

v.tr.

1. To stop or halt; check.

2. To postpone; delay.

3. To delay or stop the effect of (an order, for example) by legal action or mandate: stay a prisoner's execution.

4. To satisfy or appease temporarily: stayed his anger.

5. To remain during: stayed the week with my parents; stayed the duration of the game.

6. To wait for; await: "I will not stay thy questions. Let me go;/Or if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood" Shakespeare.

1. The act of halting; check.

2. The act of coming to a halt.

3. A brief period of residence or visiting.

4. A suspension or postponement of a legal action or an execution: granted a stay to the prisoner's execution.

Idioms:

stay put

To remain in a fixed or established position.

stay the course

To hold out or persevere to the end of a race or challenge.

[Middle English steien, from Old French ester, esteir, from Latin stre; see st- in Indo-European roots.]

Synonyms: stay¹, remain, wait, abide, tarry¹, linger, sojourn
These verbs mean to continue to be in a given place. Stay is the least specific, though it can also suggest that the person involved is a guest or visitor: "Must you go? Can't you stay?" Charles J. Vaughan.
Remain often implies continuing or being left after others have gone: I remained at the end of the meeting to talk to the speaker.
Wait suggests remaining in readiness, anticipation, or expectation: "Your father is waiting for me to take a walk with him" Booth Tarkington.
Abide implies continuing for a lengthy period: "Abide with me" Henry Francis Lyte.
Tarry and linger both imply a delayed departure, but linger more strongly suggests reluctance to leave: "She was not anxious but puzzled that her husband tarried" Eden Phillpotts. "I alone sit lingering here" Henry Vaughan.
To sojourn is to reside temporarily in a place: "He was sojourning at [a] hotel in Bond Street" Anthony Trollope. See Also Synonyms at defer¹.

stay² (st

)

tr.v. stayed, stay·ing, stays

1. To brace, support, or prop up.

2. To strengthen or sustain mentally or spiritually.

3. To rest or fix on for support.

1. A support or brace.

2. A strip of bone, plastic, or metal, used to stiffen a garment or part, such as a corset or shirt collar.

3. stays A corset.

[Middle English staien, from Old French estaiier, from estaie, a support, of Germanic origin.]

stay ¹

Verb

1. to continue or remain in a place, position, or condition: to stay away, to stay inside

2. to lodge as a guest or visitor temporarily: we stay with friends

3. Scot & S African to reside permanently; live

4. to endure (something testing or difficult): you have stayed the course this long

Noun

1. the period spent in one place

2. the postponement of an order of a court of law: a stay of execution [Old French ester]

stay ²

Noun

something that supports or steadies something, such as a prop or buttress [Old French estaye]

stay ³

Noun

a rope or chain supporting a ship's mast or funnel [Old English stæg]

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Noun	1.	stay - continuing or remaining in a place or state; "they had a nice stay in Paris"; "a lengthy hospital stay"; "a four-month stay in bankruptcy court" human action, human activity, act, deed - something that people do or cause to happen sojourn, visit - a temporary stay (e.g., as a guest) layover, stopover, stop - a brief stay in the course of a journey; "they made a stopover to visit their friends"
	2.	stay - the state of inactivity following an interruption; "the negotiations were in arrest"; "held them in check"; "during the halt he got some lunch"; "the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow"; "he spent the entire stop in his seat" halt, stoppage, hitch, arrest, check, stop inaction, inactiveness, inactivity - the state of being inactive countercheck - a check that restrains another check logjam - any stoppage attributable to unusual activity; "the legislation ran into a logjam"
	3.	stay - a judicial order forbidding some action until an event occurs or the order is lifted; "the Supreme Court has the power to stay an injunction pending an appeal to the whole Court" decree, fiat, edict, rescript, order - a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge); "a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there" stay of execution - an order whereby a judgment is precluded from being executed for a specific period of time law, jurisprudence - the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"
	4.	stay - a thin strip of metal or bone that is used to stiffen a garment (e.g. a corset) strip, slip - artifact consisting of a narrow flat piece of material
	5.	stay - (nautical) brace consisting of a heavy rope or wire cable used as a support for a mast or spar sailing, seafaring, navigation - the work of a sailor backstay - a stay that supports the back of something bracing, brace - a structural member used to stiffen a framework forestay - an adjustable stay from the foremast to the deck or bowsprit; controls the bending of the mast
Verb	1.	stay - stay the same; remain in a certain state; "The dress remained wet after repeated attempts to dry it"; "rest assured"; "stay alone"; "He remained unmoved by her tears"; "The bad weather continued for another week" remain, rest keep out - remain outside sit tight - maintain the same position; wait it out; "Let's not make a decision--let's sit tight" stay together, stick together - be loyal to one another, especially in times of trouble; "The two families stuck together throughout the war" be - have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer" stand - remain inactive or immobile; "standing water" stay fresh, keep - fail to spoil or rot; "These potatoes keep for a long time" be - to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted -- used only in infinitive form; "let her be" change - undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night"
	2.	stay - stay put (in a certain place); "We are staying in Detroit; we are not moving to Cincinnati"; "Stay put in the corner here!"; "Stick around and you will learn something!" stay put, stick, stick around stay in place - be stationary move - change residence, affiliation, or place of employment; "We moved from Idaho to Nebraska"; "The basketball player moved from one team to another"
	3.	stay - dwell; "You can stay with me while you are in town"; "stay a bit longer--the day is still young" abide, bide archaicism, archaism - the use of an archaic expression visit - stay with as a guest; "Every summer, we visited our relatives in the country for a month" outstay, overstay - stay too long; "overstay or outstay one's welcome" stay on, remain, stay, continue - continue in a place, position, or situation; "After graduation, she stayed on in Cambridge as a student adviser"; "Stay with me, please"; "despite student protests, he remained Dean for another year"; "She continued as deputy mayor for another year"
	4.	stay - continue in a place, position, or situation; "After graduation, she stayed on in Cambridge as a student adviser"; "Stay with me, please"; "despite student protests, he remained Dean for another year"; "She continued as deputy mayor for another year" stay on, remain, continue be - have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer" abide, bide, stay - dwell; "You can stay with me while you are in town"; "stay a bit longer--the day is still young" hold over - continue a term of office past the normal period of time
	5.	stay - remain behind; "I had to stay at home and watch the children" take leave, quit, depart - go away or leave
	6.	stay - stop or halt; "Please stay the bloodshed!" detain, delay retard, delay, check - slow the growth or development of; "The brain damage will retard the child's language development"
	7.	stay - stay behind; "The smell stayed in the room"; "The hostility remained long after they made up" persist, remain stick - endure; "The label stuck to her for the rest of her life" linger - remain present although waning or gradually dying; "Her perfume lingered on"
	8.	stay - hang on during a trial of endurance; "ride out the storm" last out, outride, ride out outstay - surpass in staying power; "They outstayed their competitors"
	9.	stay - stop a judicial process; "The judge stayed the execution order" kibosh, stop, block, halt - stop from happening or developing; "Block his election"; "Halt the process"
	10.	stay - fasten with stays fasten, fix, secure - cause to be firmly attached; "fasten the lock onto the door"; "she fixed her gaze on the man"
	11.	stay - overcome or allay; "quell my hunger" appease, quell fulfil, fulfill, satisfy, meet, fill - fill or meet a want or need