laid
Americanverb
verb
Other Word Forms
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How does laid compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Laid means "set down." If you built a brick wall, and then when it's done your neighbor complains that the wall crosses onto his property, tell him, "too late! The brick has already been laid." Laid is the past participle of the verb, lay, which means set down. So something that has been laid has already been set down. You might scramble up the eggs the chickens laid yesterday. Before your guests come over, your table should have been laid. Or you might examine the foundations that the builder laid down for the house you're building. We often use laid if we want to emphasize how carefully something has been done.
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 path he laid out ran through Alaska, Ohio, North Carolina, and Maine.
From Slate ● Oct. 10, 2026
Brown was laid off from OpenAI, then briefly joined Google’s DeepMind lab.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The following month, it laid off 300 people or roughly 3% of its staff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
And other events which took place this year laid bare just how much more fans are being charged.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Lloyd was all eyes, shifting around to see better until Dad laid a calming hand on him.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
