lay down

present singular third person lays down · participle present laying down · participle past laid down · past laid down

1. transitiveTo give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground.

   Lay down your arms.

   1 more example

   The police urged the gunman to lay down his weapon.

2. To place or install on the ground, e.g. a railway on a trackbed.

   lay down a mat; lay down asphalt; lay down a road

   2 more examples

   Two standard types of flat-bottom track were introduced as early as 1949, and some 1,570 miles had been laid down to the end of 1950.

   1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 225

   He also thought nothing of laying down a railway in a war zone. For example, he was one of those behind the Grand Crimean Central Railway, built during the Crimean War [...].

   2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57

3. transitiveTo intentionally take a fall while riding a motorcycle, in order to prevent a more serious collision.

   He laid down his brand-new Harley-Davidson to avoid the oncoming bus.

4. transitiveTo specify, institute, enact, assert firmly, state authoritatively, establish or formulate (rules or policies).

   You've got to lay down the law with that boy.

   5 more examples

   Let's lay down the rules right at the beginning, so we are consistent.

   Well, I lay it down, first, that a book quite unornamented can look actually and positively beautiful, and not merely un-ugly, if it be, so to say, architecturally good, which, by the by, need not add much to its price […]

   1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book

   Many of the faults reported in all categories should have been cleared by systematic fault-finding. Once a system of fault-finding has been laid down, staff must be made familiar with it and must follow the correct sequence of diagnosis step by step in the way set out in a fault-finding chart.

   1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 103

   To come up with common, honorable, flexible, sensible, creative, meaningful, non-coercive "codes" or expectations of ethical behavior while avoiding laying down hard-line, guilt-inspiring "politically correct" rules and superficial judgements is no small feat.

   1979, Alix Dobkins, Adventures in Women's Music

   The law was written in words, and those ideally laid down bright lines for everyone to follow

   2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist

5. To stock, store (e.g. wine) for the future. See also lay by.
6. datedtransitiveAfrican-American VernacularTo kill (someone).
7. euphemistictransitiveTo euthanize an animal.
8. To sacrifice, especially in the phrase "to lay down one's life."
9. intransitiveproscribedTo lie down.

   I feel a bit ill, so I'm going to go lay down for a while.

10. datednauticalTo draw the lines of a ship's hull at full size, before starting a build.

    So Ut-napishtim obeyed the god Ea and gathered together the wood and all things needful for the building of the ship, and on the fifth day he laid down the hull. In the shape of a barge he built it, and on it he set a house […]

    1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 114

11. obsoletemediaTo place a sheet in a printing press for printing.

1. pastsimple past of lie down

   He lay down in his bed until he felt better.