subs. (old).—1.  A cuckold (GROSE).

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  2.  (colloquial).—Half a meal: also STAY-BELLY. Also as verb. (or TO STAY THE STOMACH).

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  1610.  JONSON, The Alchemist, iii. 2.

        And a piece of ginger-bread, to be merry withal,
And STAY YOUR STOMACH, lest you faint with fasting.

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  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xi. I could eat both portions four times over, of course, but the meal as it stands is a ‘STAY.’

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  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.

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  1885.  Daily Telegraph, 14 Sept. He won at Lincoln … and would STAY better than Pizarro. Ibid., 11 Nov. Doubts are also entertained concerning her ability to STAY the course.

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  1885.  The Field, 3 Oct. Monolith has never been thought such a genuine STAYER as to prefer two miles to one.

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  1898.  N. 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.

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  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.

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  1857–64.  J. BRINSLEY RICHARDS, Seven Years at Eton, x. 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.

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  1876.  A. D. T. WHITNEY, Sights and Insights, I. 37. We piled our bags and baskets…. ‘If they ’ll only STAY PUT,’ said Emery Ann.

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  1901.  The Athenæum, 13 April, 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.’

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  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.

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  1914.  M. L. MACNAGHTEN, Days of My Years, ii. 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.

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