stay¹ (stā)

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[Middle English steien, from Old French ester, esteir, from Latin stāre.]

verb: stayed, stay·ing, stays. 

intransitive verb 

1. To continue to be in a place or condition: stay home; stay calm.
2. To remain or sojourn as a guest or lodger: stayed at a motel.
3. To stop moving; halt.
4. To wait; pause.
5. To endure or persist: stayed with the original plan.
6. To keep up in a race or contest: tried to stay with the lead runner.
7. Games To meet a bet in poker without raising it.
8. To stand one's ground; remain firm.
9. Archaic To cease from a specified activity.

transitive verb 

1. To stop or halt; check.
2. To postpone; delay.
3. To delay or stop the effect of (an order, for example) by legal action or mandate: stay a prisoner's execution.
4. To satisfy or appease temporarily: stayed his anger.
5. To remain during: stayed the week with my parents; stayed the duration of the game.
6. To wait for; await: “I will not stay thy questions. Let me go;/Or if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood” (Shakespeare)

noun 

1. The act of halting; check.
2. The act of coming to a halt.
3. A brief period of residence or visiting.
4. A suspension or postponement of a legal action or an execution: granted a stay to the prisoner's execution.

idioms

stay put

To remain in a fixed or established position.

stay the course

To hold out or persevere to the end of a race or challenge.

synonyms:

stay¹remain, wait, abide, tarry¹linger, sojourn These verbs mean to continue to be in a given place. Stay is the least specific, though it can also suggest that the person involved is a guest or visitor: “Must you go? Can't you stay?” (Charles J. Vaughan) Remain often implies continuing or being left after others have gone: I remained at the end of the meeting to talk to the speaker. Wait suggests remaining in readiness, anticipation, or expectation: “Your father is waiting for me to take a walk with him” (Booth Tarkington) Abide implies continuing for a lengthy period: “Abide with me” (Henry Francis Lyte) Tarry and linger both imply a delayed departure, but linger more strongly suggests reluctance to leave: “She was not anxious but puzzled that her husband tarried” (Eden Phillpotts) “I alone sit lingering here” (Henry Vaughan) To sojourn is to reside temporarily in a place: “He was sojourning athotel in Bond Street” (Anthony Trollope)

See also: defer¹

stay² (stā)

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[Middle English staien, from Old French estaiier, from estaie, a support, of Germanic origin.]

transitive verb: stayed, stay·ing, stays. 

1. To brace, support, or prop up.
2. To strengthen or sustain mentally or spiritually.
3. To rest or fix on for support.

noun 

1. A support or brace.
2. A strip of bone, plastic, or metal, used to stiffen a garment or part, such as a corset or shirt collar.
3. A corset.

stay³ (stā)

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[Middle English, from Old English stæg.]

noun 

1. Nautical A heavy rope or cable, usually of wire, used as a brace or support for a mast or spar.
2. A rope used to steady, guide, or brace.

tr. & intr.v.: stayed, stay·ing, stays. 

To put (a ship) on the opposite tack or to come about.