belay
Americanverb (used with object)
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Nautical. to fasten (a rope) by winding around a pin or short rod inserted in a holder so that both ends of the rod are clear.
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Mountain Climbing.
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to secure (a person) by attaching to one end of a rope.
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to secure (a rope) by attaching to a person or to an object offering stable support.
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(used chiefly in the imperative)
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to cease (an action); stop.
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to ignore (an announcement, order, etc.).
Belay that, the meeting will be at 0900 instead of 0800.
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verb (used without object)
noun
verb
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nautical to make fast (a line) by securing to a pin, cleat, or bitt
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(usually imperative) nautical to stop; cease
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mountaineering to secure (a climber) to a mountain by tying the rope off round a rock spike, piton, nut, etc
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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belaysimple
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belayssimple
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have belayedperfect
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has belayedperfect
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am belayingprogressive
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are belayingprogressive
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is belayingprogressive
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have been belayingperfect progressive
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has been belayingperfect progressive
Past
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belayedsimple
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had belayedperfect
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was belayingprogressive
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were belayingprogressive
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had been belayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of belay
before 900; Middle English beleggen, Old English belecgan. See be-, lay 1
Explanation
To belay is to secure or hold the end of a climbing rope so that the climber won't fall far if she slips. Your friend might climb a rock wall first, while you belay for her. You can belay on your own by fixing the end of your rope, but it's more common — and safer — to have a partner belay for you while you climb. To do this, she exerts friction on the rope when you don't move, and releases more rope when you need it to climb higher. The word was first used by sailors in the 16th century, in a similar way — to secure a marine rope by coiling it around a pin.
Vocabulary lists containing belay
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.
See Examples For:
In a Facebook post, mountain rescue said the climbing leader was uninjured after the fall and managed to regain the belay device which helps to keep the climbers safe.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
I went first, with Miller anchoring himself above to belay me with the rope.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2023
We know the novel’s prettiness will always be there to belay this heroine to a gentle landing.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023
You must be able to properly tie into the rope and your partner must be competent using a belay device to take in rope as you climb and then hold your weight.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2021
Borrowing Jamie’s gloves, I hold the belay line—letting out slack as Jay rises, ready to snap it back if his legs slip or his grip fails.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The bottom climber belays — controlling slack in the rope and arresting falls — and then climbs up after the lead climber finishes the pitch.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2018
The sheet exits the deck through a slot in the cockpit coaming behind the helm and belays to the after end of the boom.
From Time Magazine Archive
At Yosemite Valley in California, the body of Derek Hersey, a renowned Alpinist whose unforgiving specialty was rock-wall climbing done solo and without the protection of belays, was found below Sentinel Peak.
From Time Magazine Archive
Passing a stopper, my lad, means to wrap a rope about a fall while another belays it.
From The Battleship Boys at Sea Two Apprentices in Uncle Sam's Navy by Patchin, Frank Gee
No. 11 chokes luff of train-tackle, or hitches it, if required; provides and hooks tackle of muzzle-purchase; belays and lowers.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
The Nymex August contract will need “significant help” from the weather to get back toward the $3 level, “but the freefall towards $2.70 looks to have been belayed at least for now,” he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
When he slipped near the top and was belayed back to the ground, Ondra suspected it was good enough to get him to Thursday with his medal hopes intact.
From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2021
Cobin belayed her while the girls looked on in a perilous moment.
From Washington Times ● May 3, 2020
He seized the rope, burned his hands as he belayed it around an outcropping rock and stopped the fall.
From Time Magazine Archive
He seized the fellow and thrust him toward the pins where the halyards were belayed.
From Blow The Man Down A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 by Day, Holman
I was belaying my friend when he came over and said the word, “Hi.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
Joshua went ahead belaying by rope and fixing ice-pins.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 8, 2018
First of all, you need at least three adults in the rotation — one who’s climbing, one who’s belaying and one who’s on baby-watch duty.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2017
Rope is looped around metal dowels called belaying pins that sit in a horizontal steel bar called a pin rail.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 26, 2017
Then I needed to think of my own safety and passed a turn of the mizzen gaff-topsail downhaul about me, belaying to a pin as the cataclysm hit us.
From The Grain Ship by Robertson, Morgan
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.
