lay on

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

1. idiomatictransitiveTo provide (food or drinks) for free.

   At the conference, they laid on a wonderful buffet.

2. To provide.

   Operator Abellio ScotRail doubled the Mon-Sat service from one train in each direction to two from May 2019 - it being something of a self-fulfilling prophecy that if you lay on trains, people might use them.

   2022 January 26, Stephen Roberts, “Top of the stops: our least used stations”, in RAIL, number 949, page 56

   1 more example

   Özil has 16 assists in the Premier League and three goals; he has two more goals in the Champions League. On Monday, he took Bournemouth apart in the 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium, setting up the first for Gabriel and scoring the second himself. Özil laid on a total of nine chances, the majority of them for Walcott.

   2016 January 1, David Hytner, The Guardian

3. transitiveTo apply or implement (something).

   He laid on the solicitude pretty thickly.

4. idiomatictransitiveTo repeatedly say (particular types of thing).

   He laid on compliments.

   1 more example

   She was fed up him laying on the jokes, which she found insulting.

5. To do something excessively.

   I would I could see / this taborer! He lays it on.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

6. transitiveTo cover something with a layer of (something).

   He's going to lay on a coat of primer before painting the wall.

7. slangtransitiveTo give (money, drugs, etc.) to (someone).

   Maybe somebody would see him and recognize him, maybe one of the guys would lay enough bread on him for a meal or at least subway fare.

   1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published January 1963, pages 3–4

8. slangtransitiveAfrican-American VernacularTo impart or explain (something) in words to (someone).

   Lay some wisdom on me, man.

9. archaicTo attack or strike.

   1 more example

   So the lad went back again to the north wind, and said that the goat wasn't worth anything, and he wasn't going to be done out of his meal, not he! "Well," said the north wind, "I have nothing else to give you but that old stick over there in the corner; but it is a good stick, and if you only say, 'Stick of mine, lay on,' it lays on, till you say, 'Stick of mine, leave off.'"

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 166

10. UKTo give (something) as a gift, special treat or bonus.
11. nauticalTo sail towards or to arrive at (a destination).
12. nauticalTo vigorously row (an oar) to propel a boat or ship.
13. obsoletemediaTo feed sheets in for printing one by one.
14. colloquialTo blame; to shift blame onto someone or something.

    He talked to the cops and laid it on me.