Lay \Lay\ (l[=a]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Laid (l[=a]d); p. pr. &
vb. n. Laying.] [OE. leggen, AS. lecgan, causative, fr.
licgan to lie; akin to D. leggen, G. legen, Icel. leggja,
Goth. lagjan. See Lie to be prostrate.]
1. To cause to lie down, to be prostrate, or to lie against
something; to put or set down; to deposit; as, to lay a
book on the table; to lay a body in the grave; a shower
lays the dust.
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A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the
den. --Dan. vi. 17.
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Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid. --Milton.
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2. To place in position; to establish firmly; to arrange with
regularity; to dispose in ranks or tiers; as, to lay a
corner stone; to lay bricks in a wall; to lay the covers
on a table.
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3. To prepare; to make ready; to contrive; to provide; as, to
lay a snare, an ambush, or a plan.
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4. To spread on a surface; as, to lay plaster or paint.
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5. To cause to be still; to calm; to allay; to suppress; to
exorcise, as an evil spirit.
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After a tempest when the winds are laid. --Waller.
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6. To cause to lie dead or dying.
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Brave C[ae]neus laid Ortygius on the plain,
The victor C[ae]neus was by Turnus slain. --Dryden.
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7. To deposit, as a wager; to stake; to risk.
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I dare lay mine honor
He will remain so. --Shak.
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8. To bring forth and deposit; as, to lay eggs.
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9. To apply; to put.
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She layeth her hands to the spindle. --Prov. xxxi.
19.
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10. To impose, as a burden, suffering, or punishment; to
assess, as a tax; as, to lay a tax on land.
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The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
--Is. liii. 6.
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11. To impute; to charge; to allege.
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God layeth not folly to them. --Job xxiv.
12.
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Lay the fault on us. --Shak.
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12. To impose, as a command or a duty; as, to lay commands on
one.
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13. To present or offer; as, to lay an indictment in a
particular county; to lay a scheme before one.
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14. (Law) To state; to allege; as, to lay the venue.
--Bouvier.
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15. (Mil.) To point; to aim; as, to lay a gun.
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16. (Rope Making) To put the strands of (a rope, a cable,
etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them; as,
to lay a cable or rope.
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17. (Print.)
(a) To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the
imposing stone.
(b) To place (new type) properly in the cases.
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To lay asleep, to put sleep; to make unobservant or
careless. --Bacon.
To lay bare, to make bare; to strip.
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And laid those proud roofs bare to summer's rain.
--Byron.
To lay before, to present to; to submit for consideration;
as, the papers are laid before Congress.
To lay by.
(a) To save.
(b) To discard.
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Let brave spirits . . . not be laid by.
--Bacon.
To lay by the heels, to put in the stocks. --Shak.
To lay down.
(a) To stake as a wager.
(b) To yield; to relinquish; to surrender; as, to lay
down one's life; to lay down one's arms.
(c) To assert or advance, as a proposition or principle.
To lay forth.
(a) To extend at length; (reflexively) to exert one's
self; to expatiate. [Obs.]
(b) To lay out (as a corpse). [Obs.] --Shak.
To lay hands on, to seize.
To lay hands on one's self, or To lay violent hands on
one's self, to injure one's self; specif., to commit
suicide.
To lay heads together, to consult.
To lay hold of, or To lay hold on, to seize; to catch.
To lay in, to store; to provide.
To lay it on, to apply without stint. --Shak.
To lay it on thick, to flatter excessively.
To lay on, to apply with force; to inflict; as, to lay on
blows.
To lay on load, to lay on blows; to strike violently. [Obs.
or Archaic]
To lay one's self out, to strive earnestly.
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No selfish man will be concerned to lay out himself
for the good of his country. --Smalridge.
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To lay one's self open to, to expose one's self to, as to
an accusation.
To lay open, to open; to uncover; to expose; to reveal.
To lay over, to spread over; to cover.
To lay out.
(a) To expend. --Macaulay.
(b) To display; to discover.
(c) To plan in detail; to arrange; as, to lay out a
garden.
(d) To prepare for burial; as, to lay out a corpse.
(e) To exert; as, to lay out all one's strength.
To lay siege to.
(a) To besiege; to encompass with an army.
(b) To beset pertinaciously.
To lay the course (Naut.), to sail toward the port intended
without jibing.
To lay the land (Naut.), to cause it to disappear below the
horizon, by sailing away from it.
To lay to
(a) To charge upon; to impute.
(b) To apply with vigor.
(c) To attack or harass. [Obs.] --Knolles.
(d) (Naut.) To check the motion of (a vessel) and cause
it to be stationary.
To lay to heart, to feel deeply; to consider earnestly.
To lay under, to subject to; as, to lay under obligation or
restraint.
To lay unto.
(a) Same as To lay to (above).
(b) To put before. --Hos. xi. 4.
To lay up.
(a) To store; to reposit for future use.
(b) To confine; to disable.
(c) To dismantle, and retire from active service, as a
ship.
To lay wait for, to lie in ambush for.
To lay waste, to destroy; to make desolate; as, to lay
waste the land.
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Syn: See Put, v. t., and the Note under 4th Lie.
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Head \Head\ (h[e^]d), n. [OE. hed, heved, heaved, AS. he['a]fod;
akin to D. hoofd, OHG. houbit, G. haupt, Icel. h["o]fu[eth],
Sw. hufvud, Dan. hoved, Goth. haubi[thorn]. The word does not
correspond regularly to L. caput head (cf. E. Chief,
Cadet, Capital), and its origin is unknown.]
1. The anterior or superior part of an animal, containing the
brain, or chief ganglia of the nervous system, the mouth,
and in the higher animals, the chief sensory organs; poll;
cephalon.
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2. The uppermost, foremost, or most important part of an
inanimate object; such a part as may be considered to
resemble the head of an animal; often, also, the larger,
thicker, or heavier part or extremity, in distinction from
the smaller or thinner part, or from the point or edge;
as, the head of a cane, a nail, a spear, an ax, a mast, a
sail, a ship; that which covers and closes the top or the
end of a hollow vessel; as, the head of a cask or a steam
boiler.
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3. The place where the head should go; as, the head of a bed,
of a grave, etc.; the head of a carriage, that is, the
hood which covers the head.
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4. The most prominent or important member of any organized
body; the chief; the leader; as, the head of a college, a
school, a church, a state, and the like. "Their princes
and heads." --Robynson (More's Utopia).
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The heads of the chief sects of philosophy.
--Tillotson.
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Your head I him appoint. --Milton.
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5. The place or honor, or of command; the most important or
foremost position; the front; as, the head of the table;
the head of a column of soldiers.
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An army of fourscore thousand troops, with the duke
of Marlborough at the head of them. --Addison.
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6. Each one among many; an individual; -- often used in a
plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle.
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It there be six millions of people, there are about
four acres for every head. --Graunt.
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7. The seat of the intellect; the brain; the understanding;
the mental faculties; as, a good head, that is, a good
mind; it never entered his head, it did not occur to him;
of his own head, of his own thought or will.
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Men who had lost both head and heart. --Macaulay.
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8. The source, fountain, spring, or beginning, as of a stream
or river; as, the head of the Nile; hence, the altitude of
the source, or the height of the surface, as of water,
above a given place, as above an orifice at which it
issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from
motion; sometimes also, the quantity in reserve; as, a
mill or reservoir has a good head of water, or ten feet
head; also, that part of a gulf or bay most remote from
the outlet or the sea.
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9. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head. --Shak.
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10. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be
expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
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11. Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force;
height.
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Ere foul sin, gathering head, shall break into
corruption. --Shak.
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The indisposition which has long hung upon me, is
at last grown to such a head, that it must quickly
make an end of me or of itself. --Addison.
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12. Power; armed force.
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My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head.
--Shak.
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13. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a
head of hair. --Swift.
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14. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small
cereals.
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15. (Bot.)
(a) A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies,
thistles; a capitulum.
(b) A dense, compact mass of leaves, as in a cabbage or a
lettuce plant.
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16. The antlers of a deer.
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17. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or
other effervescing liquor. --Mortimer.
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18. pl. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house. --Knight.
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Note: Head is often used adjectively or in self-explaining
combinations; as, head gear or headgear, head rest. Cf.
Head, a.
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A buck of the first head, a male fallow deer in its fifth
year, when it attains its complete set of antlers. --Shak.
By the head. (Naut.) See under By.
Elevator head, Feed head, etc. See under Elevator,
Feed, etc.
From head to foot, through the whole length of a man;
completely; throughout. "Arm me, audacity, from head to
foot." --Shak.
Head and ears, with the whole person; deeply; completely;
as, he was head and ears in debt or in trouble. [Colloq.]
Head fast. (Naut.) See 5th Fast.
Head kidney (Anat.), the most anterior of the three pairs
of embryonic renal organs developed in most vertebrates;
the pronephros.
Head money, a capitation tax; a poll tax. --Milton.
Head pence, a poll tax. [Obs.]
Head sea, a sea that meets the head of a vessel or rolls
against her course.
Head and shoulders.
(a) By force; violently; as, to drag one, head and
shoulders. "They bring in every figure of speech,
head and shoulders." --Felton.
(b) By the height of the head and shoulders; hence, by a
great degree or space; by far; much; as, he is head
and shoulders above them.
Heads or tails or Head or tail, this side or that side;
this thing or that; -- a phrase used in throwing a coin to
decide a choice, question, or stake, head being the side
of the coin bearing the effigy or principal figure (or, in
case there is no head or face on either side, that side
which has the date on it), and tail the other side.
Neither head nor tail, neither beginning nor end; neither
this thing nor that; nothing distinct or definite; -- a
phrase used in speaking of what is indefinite or confused;
as, they made neither head nor tail of the matter.
[Colloq.]
Head wind, a wind that blows in a direction opposite the
vessel's course.
off the top of my head, from quick recollection, or as an
approximation; without research or calculation; -- a
phrase used when giving quick and approximate answers to
questions, to indicate that a response is not necessarily
accurate.
Out of one's own head, according to one's own idea; without
advice or co["o]peration of another.
Over the head of, beyond the comprehension of. --M. Arnold.
to go over the head of (a person), to appeal to a person
superior to (a person) in line of command.
To be out of one's head, to be temporarily insane.
To come or draw to a head. See under Come, Draw.
To give (one) the head, or To give head, to let go, or to
give up, control; to free from restraint; to give license.
"He gave his able horse the head." --Shak. "He has so long
given his unruly passions their head." --South.
To his head, before his face. "An uncivil answer from a son
to a father, from an obliged person to a benefactor, is a
greater indecency than if an enemy should storm his house
or revile him to his head." --Jer. Taylor.
To lay heads together, to consult; to conspire.
To lose one's head, to lose presence of mind.
To make head, or To make head against, to resist with
success; to advance.
To show one's head, to appear. --Shak.
To turn head, to turn the face or front. "The ravishers
turn head, the fight renews." --Dryden.
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