lay down
verbEtymology From Middle English leyen doun, leien doun (“to lay down”), equivalent to lay + down.
11 senses
- 1To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually…
- 2To place on the ground, e.g. a railway on a trackbed.
- 3To intentionally take a fall while riding a motorcycle…
- 4To specify, institute, enact, assert firmly, state…
- 5To stock, store (e.g. wine) for the future. See also lay by.
- 6To kill (someone).
- 7To euthanize an animal.
- 8To sacrifice, especially in the phrase "to lay down one's life."
- 9To lie down.
- 10To draw the lines of a ship's hull at full size, before…
- 11To place a sheet in a printing press for printing.
To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground.
- The police urged the gunman to lay down his weapon.
- Lay down your arms.
To place on the ground, e.g. a railway on a trackbed.
- Two standard types of flat-bottom track were introduced as early as 1949, and some 1,570 miles had been laid down to the end of 1950.1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 225:
- He also thought nothing of laying down a railway in a war zone. For example, he was one of those behind the Grand Crimean Central Railway, built during the Crimean War [...].2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57:
To intentionally take a fall while riding a motorcycle, in order to prevent a more serious collision.
- He laid down his brand-new Harley-Davidson to avoid the oncoming bus.
To specify, institute, enact, assert firmly, state authoritatively, establish or formulate (rules or policies).
- Let's lay down the rules right at the beginning, so we are consistent.
- You've got to lay down the law with that boy.
4 more examples
- Well, I lay it down, first, that a book quite unornamented can look actually and positively beautiful, and not merely un-ugly, if it be, so to say, architecturally good, which, by the by, need not add much to its price […]1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book:
- Many of the faults reported in all categories should have been cleared by systematic fault-finding. Once a system of fault-finding has been laid down, staff must be made familiar with it and must follow the correct sequence of diagnosis step by step in the way set out in a fault-finding chart.1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 103:
- To come up with common, honorable, flexible, sensible, creative, meaningful, non-coercive "codes" or expectations of ethical behavior while avoiding laying down hard-line, guilt-inspiring "politically correct" rules and superficial judgements is no small feat.1979, Alix Dobkins, Adventures in Women's Music:
- The law was written in words, and those ideally laid down bright lines for everyone to follow2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist:
To stock, store (e.g. wine) for the future. See also lay by.
Dated To kill (someone).
African-American Vernacular
Euphemistic To euthanize an animal.
To sacrifice, especially in the phrase "to lay down one's life."
Proscribed To lie down.
- I feel a bit ill, so I'm going to go lay down for a while.
Media, Printing, Publishing Obsolete To place a sheet in a printing press for printing.