relay

plural relays

1. rarehobbiesA new set of hounds.First known use 15th c.
2. historicalA new set of horses kept along a specific route so that they can replace animals that are tired.First known use 17th c.
3. broadlyA new set of anything.

   Bank-notes fluttered down and lay about in all directions, relays of sovereigns rolled away like so much dross, […]

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   1 more example

   There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle.

   1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 594

4. A series of vehicles travelling in sequence.First known use 18th c.
5. hobbiesA competition between teams where members of a team take turns completing parts of a course or performing a certain action.

   Synonyms: relay race

   1. athleticsA track and field discipline where runners take turns in carrying a baton from start to finish. The most common events are 4×100 meter and 4×400 meter competitions.First known use 19th c.

      Synonyms: relay race

6. businessAn electrical actuator that allows a relatively small electrical voltage or current to control a larger voltage or current.First known use 19th c.

present singular third person relays · participle present relaying · participle past relayed · past relayed

1. transitiveTo pass on or transfer (information).First known use 19th c.

   Can you relay this message to John?

   1 more example

   The CCTV cameras relay what's going on to the headquarters.

2. intransitiveobsoletehobbiesTo release a new set of hounds.First known use 15th–17th c.
3. archaictransitiveTo place (people or horses) in relays, such that one can take over from another.First known use 18th c.
4. archaicintransitiveTo take on a new relay of horses; to change horses.First known use 19th c.

   Synonyms: convey

present singular third person relays · participle present relaying · participle past relaid · past relaid

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of re-lay.

   2 more examples

   Over this section the 16th class are allowed to haul 800 tons, compared with 600 tons only by the 13th and 14th, and 450 tons by the 12th class engines, and in this way, without any expenditure on civil engineering works or relaying with heavier rails, the introduction of the 16th class has almost doubled the line capacity.

   1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 640

   A reader writes that some Ballachulish branch services are still worked by Class 2 2-6-0s Nos. 46460 and 78052, which have had to be retained at Oban until a tight curve on the outside line of the railway pier, used by coal and oil traffic for the island steamers, has been relaid to standards suitable for the diesels.

   1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Modern Railways, page 427