Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stay \Stay\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stayed}or {Staid}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Staying}.] [OF. estayer, F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr.
   OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop, probably fr. OD. stade,
   staeye, a prop, akin to E. stead; or cf. stay a rope to
   support a mast. Cf. {Staid}, a., {Stay}, v. i.]
   1. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to
      hold up; to support.

            Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the
            one side, and the other on the other side. --Ex.
                                                  xvii. 12.

            Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found
            To stay thy vines.                    --Dryden.

   2. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to
      satisfy in part or for the time.

            He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter,
            and it has not staid his stomach for a minute. --Sir
                                                  W. Scott.

   3. To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist
      successfully.

            She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor
            bide the encounter of assailing eyes. --Shak.

   4. To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to
      stop; to hold.

            Him backward overthrew and down him stayed With
            their rude hands grisly grapplement.  --Spenser.

            All that may stay their minds from thinking that
            true which they heartly wish were false. --Hooker.

   5. To hinde?; to delay; to detain; to keep back.

            Your ships are stayed at Venice.      --Shak.

            This business staid me in London almost a week.
                                                  --Evelyn.

            I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that
            appeared to me new.                   --Locke.

   6. To remain for the purpose of; to wait for. ``I stay dinner
      there.'' --Shak.

   7. To cause to cease; to put an end to.

            Stay your strife.                     --Shak.

            For flattering planets seemed to say This child
            should ills of ages stay.             --Emerson.

   8. (Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a
      flat sheet in a steam boiler.

   9. (Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of
      the vessel shall be presented to the wind.

   {To stay a mast} (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to
      one side, by the stays and backstays.