Stay, subs. (old).—1. A cuckold (Grose).
2. (colloquial).—Half a meal: also stay-belly. Also as verb. (or to stay the stomach).
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2. A piece of gingerbread to be merry withal, And stay your stomach lest you faint with fasting.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. I could eat both portions four times over, of course, but the meal as it stand is a stay.
Verb. (colloquial).—To endure, last out, or persevere: as an athlete in exercise, a horse in racing, an author in public favour. Hence stayer = anybody or anything capable of holding on for a long time; staying-power = capacity for endurance.
1885. D. Tel., 14 Sep. He won at Lincoln . . . and would stay better than Pizarro. Ibid., 11 Nov. Doubts are also entertained concerning her ability to stay the course.
1885. Field, 3 Oct. Monolith has never been thought such a genuine stayer as to prefer two miles to one.
1898. Gould, Landed at Last, iv. Workman was certainly a horse to inspire confidence, being well-shaped and built like a stayer. Ibid. Not one of my horses has failed through lack of staying power, or because he was not fit.
Phrases, &c.—To stay put = to remain as placed; to stay with = to court (American); TO stay out (Eton: see quot.); come to stay = said of anything meeting a public need, or with approval or favour; to unlace one's stays = to copulate: see Greens and Ride.
1857-64 Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. Sometimes Blazes had a lazy fit, and put himself on the sick list for a day. This was called stay out, for the reason that one had to stay in.
1870. "Mac," Sketchy Memories of Eton. Many things at Eton were called by misnomers, in the construction of which the lucus a non lucendo principle came out very strong. Thus, when we stayed in, we said we were staying out; when "absence" was called, we had to be present.
1876. Whitney, Sights and Insights, 37. We piled our bags and baskets . . . 'If they will only stay put,' said Emery Ann.
1901. Athenæum, 13 Ap., 455, 1. The issue . . . of Byron's letters will leave very little doubt in the mind of the reading public of the new century that Lord Byron as a letter-writer has come to stay.
1903. Referee, 8 Feb., 7, 4. No one with half a grain of sense could for a moment question the autocars' many merits, nor their having come to stay and become a great power in the land.
Stay-at-home, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A
person of domestic
tastes; a home-bird (q.v.).; a
house-dove (q.v.); as adj. =
fond of remaining at home; the
reverse of gad-about (q.v.).
1814. Austen, Mansfield Park, v A talking pretty young woman like Miss Crawford is always pleasant society to an indolent, stay-at-home man.
1855. Kingsley, Westward Ho, xv. Go forth and find us stay-at-homes new markets for our ware.
1863. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, ix. "Cold!" said her father, "what do ye stay-at-homes know about cold?"
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Nov. The quantity of admiration might make a modest stay-at-home dizzy to contemplate.
Stay-tape, subs. phr. (old).—A
tailor: see Trades. [Grose:
'from that article and its co-adjutor
buckram, which formerly
made no small figure in the bills
of these knights of the needle'].
Steady Habits. The Land of
Steady Habits, subs. phr.
(American).—Connecticut: see
State Nicknames. [Bartlett:
'On account of the staid
deportment and excellent morals
of the people.']
