Dictionary

lay out en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˌleɪ ˈaʊt/
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From lay + out.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase.
   • […] you must endeavour to take off your Mistress from all the care you can, giving to her a just and true account of what moneys you lay out for her, shewing your self thrifty in all your disbursements. 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 63:
   • She laid out hundreds of dollars to throw a great party.
   • There are but two ways of paying debt: increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying it out. 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Government”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
2. (transitive) To arrange (physically) in a certain way, so as to spread or space apart; to display (e.g. merchandise or a collection).
   • Crossing stations on single lines are laid out so that one line has a straight run through, and is signalled in each direction, avoiding the need to slow down to take the turnout into the loop. 1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 562:
   • She laid out a terrific spread for the party.
   • Having laid out these big-picture figures, the report then begins its analysis of traffic types against route mileage. 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 46:
   • She laid the blocks out in a circle on the floor.
3. (transitive) To explain; to interpret.
   • Because his opinions are all over the place, they find it easy to scrutinise them and lay them out […] 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, 230b:
   • Let me lay it out for you: you're not going to get a better opportunity than this one.
4. (transitive) To arrange; to design; to concoct; to think up.
   • It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise. I made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan. 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
   • She began to lay out how the circuits would be connected.
   • He began to lay out the hull for an inexpensive but fast littoral drone.
5. To prepare a body for burial.
   • So that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever Captain Ahab should be tranquilly laid out— which might hardly come to pass, so he muttered—then, whoever should do that last office for the dead, would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
   • They laid him out beautifully on a bier draped in satin.
   • The family was alone in the parlour with the great polished box. William, when laid out, was six feet four inches long. Like a monument lay the bright brown, ponderous coffin. 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 6, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
6. (US, colloquial, transitive) To render (someone) unconscious; to knock out; to cause to fall to the floor; to kill.
   • Was it possible that this responsible mill employee had been laid out and doped and was now existing in a mentally inert state by which he became an unconscious tool in the hands of those who had the key to his position? 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
   • I laid him out on the sidewalk after he tried to grab me.
7. (colloquial, transitive) To scold or berate.
   • She really laid him out for taking the money and then lying to try to cover it up.
8. (colloquial, intransitive, qualifier:jazz) To cease playing one's instrument.
   • Hey man can you lay out on the bridge?
9. (colloquial, intransitive) To sunbathe.
   • It's been raining so much all week that I haven't had a chance to lay out.

Forms

Antonyms

pick up · pack up

Coordinates

lay away · lay in · lay up

Relateds

layout

Translations (28)

es encaminar (to expend) · pl wykładać (to expend) · es impaginar (to arrange in a certain way) · es maquetar (to arrange in a certain way) · hu elrendez (to arrange in a certain way) · de auslegen (to arrange in a certain way) · grc κατατέμνω (to arrange in a certain way) · fi järjestellä (to arrange in a certain way) · pl wykładać (to explain) · pl wyłożyć (to explain) · mi tahora (to arrange in a certain way) · mi whakaatamira (to prepare a body before burial) · vec logar (to arrange in a certain way) · fi asettaa makaamaan (to prepare a body before burial) · fi sommitella (to arrange in a certain way) · pl wykładać (to arrange in a certain way) · ota صالمق (to arrange in a certain way) · hu felravataloz (to prepare a body before burial) · hu kiterít (to arrange in a certain way) · de darlegen (to explain) · fi tulkita (to explain) · pl wyłożyć (to arrange in a certain way) · fi kuluttaa (to expend) · fi asetella (to arrange in a certain way) · de aufbahren (to prepare a body before burial) · pl wyłożyć (to expend) · fi selittää (to explain) · de ausgeben (to expend)