stay

stay vb 1 Stay, remain, wait, abide, tarry, linger can mean to continue to be in one place for a noticeable time.

Stay, the most general of these terms, stresses continuance in a place or sometimes in a specified condition; it often specifically connotes the status of visitor or guest

{

they could not decide whether to stay or to go

}

{

they went for tea and stayed for dinner

}

{

staying a while at the Joneses, he could quietly insinuate . . . hilarious things about the Joneses when he weekended with the Browns— Theodore Sturgeon

}

Remain is often used interchangeably with stay but distinctively means to stay behind or to be left after others have gone

{

few remained in the building after the alarm was given

}

{

a little verse my all that shall remain— Gray

}

{

she remembered her decision to send the young people of the village into the woods. There would have been many more casualties had they remained— Linklater

}

Wait implies a staying in expectation or in readiness

{

at his request no one waited for him at the pier

}

{

the taxi waited while they were shopping

}

{

the lights in the window had a leering, waiting look, like that on the faces of old pimps who sit in the cafés— Gibbons

}

Abide implies prolonged staying or remaining after at length and usually connotes either stable residence or patient waiting for an outcome

{

she hated the change; she felt like one banished; but here she was forced to abide— Hardy

}

Tarry implies staying when it is time to depart or to proceed

{

do not tarry if you wish to catch the noon train

}

{

some children like to tarry on the way to school

}

{

the celebrated trade winds . . . ceased to blow, and over the island a horrid stillness tarried— Stafford

}

Linger, like tarry, usually implies outstaying one's appointed or allotted time; frequently, however, it also implies either deliberate delay or disinclination to depart

{

strange, that now she was released she should linger by him— Meredith

}

{

she shouldn't have come to the hotel suite. She shouldn't have lingered— this was fatal—after the others had left— Wouk

}

{

after the guests had tarried long over their tea and had done with their jokes, the woman still lingered— Buck

}

Analogous words: *delay, procrastinate, lag, loiter: *arrest, check, interrupt: *continue, persist

2 sojourn, lodge, put up, stop, *reside, live, dwell

3 *defer, postpone, suspend, intermit

Analogous words: *delay, retard, slow, slacken, detain: *restrain, check, curb: *hinder, obstruct, impede

stay vb *base, found, ground, bottom, rest