stay meaning

Verb: stay  stey

1. Stay the same; remain in a certain state
   "stay alone"
   - remain, rest 
2. Stay put (in a certain place)
   "We are staying in Detroit; we are not moving to Cincinnati"; "Stay put in the corner here!"
   - stick, stick around, stay put 
3. Dwell
   "You can stay with me while you are in town"; "stay a bit longer--the day is still young"
   - bide [archaic], abide [archaic] 
4. Continue in a place, position, or situation
   "After graduation, she stayed on in Cambridge as a student adviser"; "Stay with me, please"
   - stay on, continue, remain 
5. Remain behind
   "I had to stay at home and watch the children" 
6. Stop or halt
   "Please stay the bloodshed!"
   - detain, delay 
7. Stay behind
   "The smell stayed in the room"
   - persist, remain 
8. Hang on during a trial of endurance
   - last out, ride out, outride 
9. Stop a judicial process
   "The judge stayed the execution order" 
10. Fasten with stays 
11. Overcome or allay
    - quell, appease

Noun: stay  stey

1. Continuing or remaining in a place or state
   "they had a nice stay in Paris"; "a lengthy hospital stay"; "a four-month stay in bankruptcy court" 
2. The state of inactivity following an interruption
   "the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow"
   - arrest, check, halt, hitch, stop, stoppage 
3. A judicial order forbidding some action until an event occurs or the order is lifted
   "the Supreme Court has the power to stay an injunction pending an appeal to the whole Court" 
4. A thin strip of metal or bone that is used to stiffen a garment (e.g. a corset) 
5. (nautical) brace consisting of a heavy rope or wire cable used as a support for a mast or spar

Derived forms: staying, stays, stayed

See also: stayer

Type of: act, be, block, brace, bracing, check, decree, deed, delay, edict, fasten, fiat, fill, fix, fulfil [Brit, Cdn], fulfill [N. Amer], halt, human action, human activity, inaction, inactiveness, inactivity, kibosh, meet, order, rescript, retard, satisfy, secure, slip, stay in place, stop, strip

Antonym: change, depart, move

Encyclopedia: Stay

[Architecture]
1.

Anything that stiffens or helps to maintain a frame or other structure, as a strut or brace.

2.

See casement stay, peg stay.

stay bolt

[Business]
verb

PHRASAL VERBS

stay on

to continue working, etc. somewhere for longer than expected or after other people have left:

He was due to retire but was persuaded to stay on for another year.

stay out

(about workers) to continue to be on strike ⇨ AHEAD OF

[Engineering]
"In a structure, a tensile member which holds other members of the structure rigidly in position."

Examples

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1. it makes no odds to me whether you go or stay.
2. he tends not to stay in one place for very long.
3. you must stay where you can not be seen.
4. i suspose nothing ever stays the same.
5. the seven days of my stay had been of no use.