English

Verb

laye

1. Obsolete spelling of lay
   • c. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde:

     The sterne wind so loude gan to route That no wight other noyse mighte here; And they that layen at the dore with-oute, 745 Ful sykerly they slepten alle y-fere; And Pandarus, with a ful sobre chere, Goth to the dore anon with-outen lette, Ther-as they laye, and softely it shette.

   • 1597, King James I, Daemonologie.:

     Ye must first remember to laye the ground, that I tould you before: which is, that it is no power inherent in the circles, or in the holines of the names of God blasphemouslie vsed: nor in whatsoeuer rites or ceremonies at that time vsed, that either can raise any infernall spirit, or yet limitat him perforce within or without these circles.

   • 1775, Various, Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862:

     He was a wight of grisly fronte, And muckle berd ther was upon 't, His lockes farre down did laye: Ful wel he setten on his hors, Thatte fony felaws called Mors, For len it was and grai.

   • 1806, Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3):

     Aftir that, my seid lord retournyng to the campe, wold in nowise bee lodged in the same, but where he laye the furst nyght.

Anagrams

• ayle, Yale