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laid

American  
[leyd] / leɪd /

verb

  1. simple past tense and past participle of lay.

laid British  
/ leɪd /

verb

  1. the past tense and past participle of lay 1

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • well-laid adjective

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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.

The company laid off roughly 200 employees at its offices in Burlingame and Sunnyvale.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

It has laid off more than 8,000 people since D’Amaro’s predecessor, Bob Iger, returned as CEO in 2022 and began a major restructuring.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

Several news outlets, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the company laid off thousands of employees across multiple divisions.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

Two hundred fifty years ago, the “truths” Thomas Jefferson laid out in the Declaration of Independence were not yet “self-evident,” as Elaine Pagels pointed out in a recent essay.

From Salon • Apr. 8, 2026

“Rowdy,” I whispered, in a shaky voice, “that’s an animal all right, but I’ve never laid eyes on anything that looked like that before, and I don’t like the looks of it.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

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.