Meanings
stays1
- pluralplural of stay
- pluralplural onlyA corset.
Her face was whiter than snow, and her heart was throbbing through her stays.
(p. 502)2 more examples
“Listen! I see it all — down, down even to the stays! Such stays! Six-eight a pair, Polly, with red flannel — or list is it? — that they put into the tops of those fearful things. I can draw you a picture of them.”
1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 20Her throat was contracted, her breasts strove against the enlacement of her stays, she was about to weep.
1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 181
- indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of stay
Stays2
- pluralplural of Stay
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna woman's close-fitting foundation garment
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with stays
Cite this entry
stays. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stays
“stays.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stays. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stays,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stays.
Source: stays on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.