What's the difference between lay and lying?

Lay


Definition:

  • (imp.) of Lie, to recline.
  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the laity, as distinct from the clergy; as, a lay person; a lay preacher; a lay brother.
  • (a.) Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.
  • (a.) Not belonging to, or emanating from, a particular profession; unprofessional; as, a lay opinion regarding the nature of a disease.
  • (n.) The laity; the common people.
  • (n.) A meadow. See Lea.
  • (n.) Faith; creed; religious profession.
  • (n.) A law.
  • (n.) An obligation; a vow.
  • (a.) A song; a simple lyrical poem; a ballad.
  • (a.) A melody; any musical utterance.
  • (v. t.) To cause to lie down, to be prostrate, or to lie against something; to put or set down; to deposit; as, to lay a book on the table; to lay a body in the grave; a shower lays the dust.
  • (v. t.) To place in position; to establish firmly; to arrange with regularity; to dispose in ranks or tiers; as, to lay a corner stone; to lay bricks in a wall; to lay the covers on a table.
  • (v. t.) To prepare; to make ready; to contrive; to provide; as, to lay a snare, an ambush, or a plan.
  • (v. t.) To spread on a surface; as, to lay plaster or paint.
  • (v. t.) To cause to be still; to calm; to allay; to suppress; to exorcise, as an evil spirit.
  • (v. t.) To cause to lie dead or dying.
  • (v. t.) To deposit, as a wager; to stake; to risk.
  • (v. t.) To bring forth and deposit; as, to lay eggs.
  • (v. t.) To apply; to put.
  • (v. t.) To impose, as a burden, suffering, or punishment; to assess, as a tax; as, to lay a tax on land.
  • (v. t.) To impute; to charge; to allege.
  • (v. t.) To impose, as a command or a duty; as, to lay commands on one.
  • (v. t.) To present or offer; as, to lay an indictment in a particular county; to lay a scheme before one.
  • (v. t.) To state; to allege; as, to lay the venue.
  • (v. t.) To point; to aim; as, to lay a gun.
  • (v. t.) To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them; as, to lay a cable or rope.
  • (v. t.) To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
  • (v. t.) To place (new type) properly in the cases.
  • (v. i.) To produce and deposit eggs.
  • (v. i.) To take a position; to come or go; as, to lay forward; to lay aloft.
  • (v. i.) To lay a wager; to bet.
  • (n.) That which lies or is laid or is conceived of as having been laid or placed in its position; a row; a stratum; a layer; as, a lay of stone or wood.
  • (v. t.) A wager.
  • (v. t.) A job, price, or profit.
  • (v. t.) A share of the proceeds or profits of an enterprise; as, when a man ships for a whaling voyage, he agrees for a certain lay.
  • (v. t.) A measure of yarn; a lea. See 1st Lea (a).
  • (v. t.) The lathe of a loom. See Lathe, 3.
  • (v. t.) A plan; a scheme.
  • (imp.) of Lie

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Typological and archaeological investigations indicate that the church building represents originally the hospital facility for the lay brothers of the monastery, which according to the chronicle of the monastery was built in the beginning of the 14th century.
  • (2) Labour MP Jamie Reed, whose Copeland constituency includes Sellafield, called on the government to lay out details of a potential plan to build a new Mox plant at the site.
  • (3) The hippocampus plays an essential role in the laying down of cognitive memories, the pathway to the frontal lobe being via the MD thalamus.
  • (4) The glory lay in the defiance, although the outcome of the tie scarcely looks promising for Arsenal when the return at Camp Nou next Tuesday is borne in mind.
  • (5) As of July 1987, 10 states have prohibitory laws, five states have grandmother clauses authorizing practicing midwives under repealed statutes, five states have enabling laws which are not used, and 10 states explicitly permit lay midwives to practice.
  • (6) Speaking at The Carbon Show in London today, Philippe Chauvancy, director at climate exchange BlueNext, said that the announcement last week that it is to develop China's first standard for voluntary emission reduction projects alongside the government-backed China Beijing Environmental Exchange, could lay the foundations for a voluntary cap-and-trade scheme.
  • (7) He speeded the process of decolonisation, and was the first British prime minister to appreciate that Britain's future lay with Europe.
  • (8) This situation suppressed egg laying and resulted in a clearly decreased bone mineralization.
  • (9) Agir, launched in June as the Sahel crisis was taking hold, lays out a roadmap for better co-ordination of humanitarian and development aid to protect the most vulnerable people when drought hits again.
  • (10) The charity Bite the Ballot , which persuaded hundreds of thousands to register before the last general election, is to set up “democracy cafes” in Starbucks branches, laying on experts to explain how to register and vote, and what the referendum is all about (Bite the Ballot does not take sides but merely encourages participation).
  • (11) To overcome some of these problems it is suggested that an investigation of lay evaluation of health care should be carried out within a conceptual framework which incorporates the following elements.
  • (12) Three of the abscesses were intrapulmonary, and each lay adjacent to a pleural surface.
  • (13) Nowadays hardly a publication comes out of the regulator without it laying down another "matter for government".
  • (14) An intelligence officer told Associated Press that they were aware of the movement, but that the military is acting with care as many civilians are still trapped in the town and Boko Haram is laying land mines around it.
  • (15) After 14 minutes, Rose got in behind the Hull defence to lay on the opening goal for Eriksen while the second followed an incision up the other flank from Walker.
  • (16) In contrast, bilateral lesions of all cerebral ganglion peripheral nerves did not abolish spontaneous egg laying, suggesting that sensory input to the cerebral ganglion is not necessary for activating the bag cells.
  • (17) Several axon terminals lay close to blood vessels, and may modulate the activity of these vessels.
  • (18) Seasonal and habitat influences on the egg-laying activity of four species of Culex were compared in south Florida using jar- and vat-type oviposition traps.
  • (19) Those fed royal jelly as larvae emerge as queens and do little but lay eggs.
  • (20) Prolactin secretion was stimulated less in incubating hens deprived of their nests for 24 h (nest-deprived) than in laying hens after administration of the 5-HT receptor agonist quipazine, or precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan.

Lying


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Lie
  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Lie
  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Lie, to tell a falsehood.
  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Lie, to be supported horizontally.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A diplomatic source said the killing appeared particularly unusual because of Farooq lack of recent political activity: "He was lying low in the past two years.
  • (2) Along the spectrum of loyalties lie multiple loyalties and ambiguous loyalties, and the latter, if unresolved, create moral ambiguities.
  • (3) Periosteal chondroma is an uncommon benign cartilagenous lesion, and its importance lies primarily in its characteristic radiographic and pathologic appearance which should be of assistance in the differential diagnosis of eccentric lesions of bones.
  • (4) 8.47pm: Cameron says he believes Britain's best days lie ahead and that he believes in public service.
  • (5) They are just literally lying.” In August Microsoft severed its ties, saying Alec’s stance on climate change and several other issues “conflicted directly with Microsoft’s values”.
  • (6) The bundles may lie parallel to the plasma membrane and to the long axis of the cell.
  • (7) The greatest advantages of spinal QCT for noninvasive bone mineral measurement lie in the high precision of the technique, the high sensitivity of the vertebral trabecular measurement site, and the potential for widespread application.
  • (8) The value of benefit-risk, benefit-cost, and cost-effectiveness analyses lies not in providing the definitive basis for a decision on vaccine use or evaluation.
  • (9) So I am, of course, intrigued about the city’s newest tourist attraction: a hangover bar, open at weekends, in which sufferers can come in and have a bit of a lie down in soothingly subdued lighting, while sipping vitamin-enriched smoothies.
  • (10) The C-terminal sequence contains an amphiphilic alpha-helix of four turns which lies on the surface of the beta-barrel.
  • (11) The lies Trump told this week: from murder rates to climate change Read more “President Obama has commuted the sentences of record numbers of high-level drug traffickers.
  • (12) Hamish Kale Floating sauna near Uppsala, Sweden Just outside Uppsala, around one hour north of Stockholm, lies the picturesque outdoor adventure area of Fjällnora.
  • (13) We attribute the greater strength of the step-cut repair to the additional number of epitendinous loops, which lie perpendicular to the long axis of the tendon.
  • (14) This contrasts sharply with the reduction in both the frequency and surface area of sensory neuron active zones that accompanies long-term habituation, and suggests that modulation of active zone number and size may be an anatomical correlate that lies in the long-term domain.
  • (15) Police in Rockhampton have ordered residents to leave their homes as electricity is switched off in low-lying areas.
  • (16) The additional value of these methods, especially of the intensive monitoring, lies also in the possibility of compiling new knowledge about semiology and electro-clinical correlation of epileptic seizures, possible trigger mechanisms and long-term therapeutic effects.
  • (17) Here we present images of polydeoxyadenylate molecules aligned in parallel, with their bases lying flat on a surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and with their charged phosphodiester backbones protruding upwards.
  • (18) Day by day we strive to unmask all the lies told to citizens.
  • (19) When an exercise test is not performed, a resting radionuclide left ventricular ejection fraction is recommended, and coronary angiography is considered if the value lies between 0.20 and 0.44 (12% 1-year mortality).
  • (20) Pre and post infusion blood samples were drawn from a catheter lying at the lower inferior vena cava and analyzed for prostaglandin E and F, and progesterone.

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