DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Stay v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stayed or Staid p. pr. & vb. n. Staying.]
 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 and grisly grapplement.   --Spenser.
    All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false.   --Hooker.
 5. To hinder; 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.”
 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.

 Stayed a. Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
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