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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stay \Stay\ (st[=a]), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Stayed} (st[=a]d) or {Staid} (st[=a]d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Staying}.] [OF. estayer, F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop, probably fr. OD. stade, staeye, a prop, akin to E. stead; or cf. stay a rope to support a mast. Cf. {Staid}, adjective, {Stay}, verb (used without an object)]
1. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support.
Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. --Ex. xvii. 12.
Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. --Dryden.
2. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute. --Sir W. Scott.
3. To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist successfully.
She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes. --Shak.
4. To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold.
Him backward overthrew and down him stayed With their rude hands and grisly grapplement. --Spenser.
All that may stay their minds from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false. --Hooker.
5. To hinder; to delay; to detain; to keep back.
Your ships are stayed at Venice. --Shak.
This business staid me in London almost a week. --Evelyn.
I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new. --Locke.
6. To remain for the purpose of; to wait for. ''I stay dinner there.'' --Shak.
7. To cause to cease; to put an end to.
Stay your strife. --Shak.
For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay. --Emerson.
8. (Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler.
9. (Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind.
{To stay a mast} (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to one side, by the stays and backstays.
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