lay in

lay in (third-person singular simple present lays in, present participle laying in, simple past and past participle laid in)

1. (transitive) To put (something) aside for future use.

   Coordinate terms: lay aside, lay away, lay by, lay up, put aside, put away, put by, save, store, store away, store up

   to lay in a stock / store / supply of something

   • 1613, Robert Harcourt, A Relation of a Voyage to Guiana‎, London: W. Welby, page 46:

     Now […] there came vnto my knowledge, an inconuenience happened by the carelesse negligence of the Master of my ship, who had the charge of prouiding and laying in the prouisions and victuals for the voyage,

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year‎, London: E. Nutt, J. Roberts, A. Dodd and J. Graves, page 95:

     As for my little Family, having thus as I have said, laid in a Store of Bread, Butter, Cheese, and Beer, I took my Friend and Physician’s Advice, and lock’d my self up, and my Family, and resolv’d to suffer the hardship of Living a few Mo[n]ths without Flesh-Meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard of our Lives.

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 12, in The Mayor of Casterbridge‎, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder, page 142:

     He applied a light to the laid-in fuel, and a cheerful radiance spread around.

   • 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 30, in Anne of Green Gables‎, Boston: L. C. Page, page 344:

     Have the best time you can in the out-of-door world and lay in a good stock of health and vitality and ambition to carry you through next year.

   • 2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, London: Serpent’s Tail, published 2006, page 419:

     […] while he laid in a generous supply of arrows for his crossbow over a period of months, he never ordered more than half a dozen at a time.

2. (transitive, art) To add (something) to a painting, especially directly onto the blank canvas in the early stages of the work.

   She uses a round brush to lay in the background.

   • 1843, [John Ruskin], chapter 3, in Modern Painters […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Of Truth), section IV (Of Truth of Earth), § 4, page 287:

     The whole [mountain] is first laid in with a very delicate and masterly grey, right in tone, agreeable in colour, quite unobjectionable for a beginning. But how is this made into rock?

3. (prison) To give a lay-in; to allow or require one to remain in one's cell, rather than work, due to injury or illness.

• IANYL, Yilan, inlay, naily