Stay, n.
 1. That which serves as a prop; a support. “My only strength and stay.”
    Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.   --Addison.
    Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry.   --Coleridge.
 2. pl. A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.
    How the strait stays the slender waist constrain.   --Gay.
 3. Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.
 Make haste, and leave thy business and thy care;
 No mortal interest can be worth thy stay.   --Dryden.
    Embrace the hero and his stay implore.   --Waller.
 4. Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.
 Made of sphere metal, never to decay
 Until his revolution was at stay.   --Milton.
    Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay.   --Hayward.
 5. Hindrance; let; check. [Obs.]
    They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.   --Robynson (More's Utopia).
 6. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety. [Obs.] “Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.”
    The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.   --Bacon.
 With prudent stay he long deferred
 The rough contention.   --Philips.
 7. Engin. Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.
 Stay bolt Mech., a bolt or short rod, connecting opposite plates, so as to prevent them from being bulged out when acted upon by a pressure which tends to force them apart, as in the leg of a steam boiler.
 Stay busk, a stiff piece of wood, steel, or whalebone, for the front support of a woman's stays.  Cf. Busk.
 Stay rod, a rod which acts as a stay, particularly in a steam boiler.

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