Stay \Stay\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stayedor Staid; p. pr. & vb. n. Staying.]

[OF. estayer, F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop, probably fr. OD. stade, staeye, a prop, akin to E. stead; or cf. stay a rope to support a mast. Cf. Staid, a., Stay, v. i.]

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 grisly grapplement. --Spenser.

All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartly wish were false. --Hooker.

5. To hinde?; 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.'' --Shak.

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)