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.
Scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
From Barron's • May 19, 2026
She laid out how O’Connor played along with this flagrant judge shopping—she actually quoted a past speech in which he defended judge shopping.
From Slate • May 18, 2026
Joachim Klement and Francisca Reis, strategists at Panmure Liberum, the U.K.’s biggest independent investment bank, have laid out three ways the AI trade may fizzle and the impact those scenarios could have on stocks.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
OpenAI was born in 2015, when Altman laid out his plans for an artificial-intelligence lab that prioritized safety.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
“Wake up! You’re a heck of a watchdog. You laid there sound asleep, and let someone steal my britches. Wake up now, and help me find them before someone sees me like this.”
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.
