lay about en · VERB
Meanings
-
To strike blows in all directions.
[...] At beating quarters up, or forage, / Behaved herself with matchless courage; / And laid about in fight more busily / Than th' Amazonian Dame Penthesile.
1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2:Alone he could have sprung into the midst of that close-packed mob, and, laying about him after the fashion of Numa, the lion, have struck the Arabs with such consternation that escape would have been easy.
1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 63:
- To set about, with infinitive or gerund.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay, about.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| laid about | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| laid about | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| laying about | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| lays about | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Translations (3)
pl walić na prawo i na lewo (to strike blows in all directions) · ru наноси́ть уда́ры напра́во и нале́во (to strike blows in all directions) · fi huitoa (to strike blows in all directions)