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Synonyms

lay for

Idioms  

  1. Be waiting to attack; also, lie in wait for, as in The gang members were laying for him in that dark alley, or The reporters were laying for the Vice President when he came out of the meeting. [Late 1400s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He and others lay for more than an hour in the bushes.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 8, 2023

As Morantz lay for six days in a hospital bed recovering from the rattlesnake bite, police and reporters began to put the pieces together.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 28, 2022

The outpouring of sadness triggered by Elizabeth's death has already drawn large crowds in Scotland, where she lay for 24 hours in St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh.

From Reuters • Sep. 14, 2022

"We lay for a long time like that on the ground, saying goodbye to our lives over and over again," Nikita said.

From BBC • Apr. 29, 2022

Frodo lay for some time awake, and looked up at the stars glinting through the pale roof of quivering leaves.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.