I put my hands behind my head, lay back and looked at a water stain on the ceiling.
“Suddenly, Mr. Anderson sat up on the gurney in sort of a bizarre manner and would not lay back down,” Neiman said.
But a bystander suggested he feign injury, lay back down in front of the car, in order to collect an insurance claim.
With parched throats, gasping for breath, they lay back in agony.
He had discarded his hat, and lay back on his elbows, ostensibly to look at the moon.
Johnny Rosenfeld lay back on the pillows and watched her face.
She would not let him speak much, and he lay back in his chair, looking at her.
My mother was now exhausted with so much talking, and lay back in an arm-chair.
He lay back in his chair while she folded the shawl about him, and smiled at her.
He lay back in the chair and puffed smoke above his head for a while.
Old English lecgan "to place on the ground (or other surface)," also "put down (often by striking)," from Proto-Germanic *lagjanan (cf. Old Saxon leggian, Old Norse leggja, Old Frisian ledza, Middle Dutch legghan, Dutch leggen, Old High German lecken, German legen, Gothic lagjan "to lay, put, place"), causative of lie (v.2). As a noun, from 1550s, "act of laying." Meaning "way in which something is laid" (e.g. lay of the land) first recorded 1819.
Meaning "have sex with" first recorded 1934, in U.S. slang, probably from sense of "deposit" (which was in Old English, as in lay an egg, lay a bet, etc.), perhaps reinforced by to lie with, a phrase frequently met in the Bible. The noun meaning "woman available for sexual intercourse" is attested from 1930, but there are suggestions of it in stage puns from as far back as 1767. To lay for (someone) "await a chance at revenge" is from late 15c.; lay low "stay inconspicuous" is from 1839. To lay (someone) low preserves the secondary Old English sense.
"uneducated; non-clerical," early 14c., from Old French lai "secular, not of the clergy" (Modern French laïque), from Late Latin laicus, from Greek laikos "of the people," from laos "people," of unknown origin. In Middle English, contrasted with learned, a sense revived 1810 for "non-expert."
"short song," mid-13c., from Old French lai "song, lyric," of unknown origin, perhaps from Celtic (cf. Irish laid "song, poem," Gaelic laoidh "poem, verse, play") because the earliest verses so called were Arthurian ballads, but OED finds this "out of the question" and prefers a theory which traces it to a Germanic source, cf. Old High German leich "play, melody, song."
verb phrase
To relax; take one's ease: It is not a Southern-rock band. They don't lay back (1970s+ fr black)
noun
verb
Related Terms