Dictionary

lay in en · VERB · etymology 1

Meanings

1. (transitive) To put (something) aside for future use.
   • Now […] there came vnto my knowledge, an inconuenience happened by the carelesse negligence of the Master of my ship, who had the charge of prouiding and laying in the prouisions and victuals for the voyage, 1613, Robert Harcourt, A Relation of a Voyage to Guiana, London: W. Welby, page 46:
   • Have the best time you can in the out-of-door world and lay in a good stock of health and vitality and ambition to carry you through next year. 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 30, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston: L. C. Page, page 344:
   • He applied a light to the laid-in fuel, and a cheerful radiance spread around. 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 12, in The Mayor of Casterbridge, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder, page 142:
   • to lay in a stock / store / supply of something
   • […] while he laid in a generous supply of arrows for his crossbow over a period of months, he never ordered more than half a dozen at a time. 2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, London: Serpent’s Tail, published 2006, page 419:
   • As for my little Family, having thus as I have said, laid in a Store of Bread, Butter, Cheese, and Beer, I took my Friend and Physician’s Advice, and lock’d my self up, and my Family, and resolv’d to suffer the hardship of Living a few Mo[n]ths without Flesh-Meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard of our Lives. 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt, J. Roberts, A. Dodd and J. Graves, page 95:
2. (transitive) To add (something) to a painting, especially directly onto the blank canvas in the early stages of the work.
   • Partridge explained that this figure was the only thing he had really finished - all the rest of the picture was only laid in. 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 151:
   • She uses a round brush to lay in the background.
   • The whole [mountain] is first laid in with a very delicate and masterly grey, right in tone, agreeable in colour, quite unobjectionable for a beginning. But how is this made into rock? 1843, [John Ruskin], chapter 3, in Modern Painters […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Of Truth), section IV (Of Truth of Earth), § 4, page 287:
3. (qualifier:prison) To give a lay-in; to allow or require one to remain in one's cell, rather than work, due to injury or illness.

Forms

Coordinates

lay by · put aside · lay aside · put away · lay away · store away · store · save · put by · lay up · store up

Relateds

lay into

lay in en · VERB · etymology 2

Meanings

1. (form-of, past) simple past of lie in
   form of lie in