LAY OUT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lay out mean? 

• LAY OUT (verb)
  The verb LAY OUT has 5 senses:

1. lay out orderly or logically in a line or as if in a line

2. get ready for a particular purpose or event

3. spend or invest

4. bring forward and present to the mind

5. provide a detailed plan or design

  Familiarity information: LAY OUT used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAY OUT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lay out orderly or logically in a line or as if in a line

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

array; lay out; range; set out

Context example:

lay out the arguments

Hypernyms (to "lay out" is one way to...):

arrange; set up (put into a proper or systematic order)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lay out"):

compart (lay out in parts according to a plan)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Get ready for a particular purpose or event

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

lay out; set; set up

Context example:

lay out the tools for the surgery

Hypernyms (to "lay out" is one way to...):

fix; gear up; prepare; ready; set; set up (make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Spend or invest

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

he laid out a fortune in the hope of making a huge profit

Hypernyms (to "lay out" is one way to...):

drop; expend; spend (pay out)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Bring forward and present to the mind

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

lay out; present; represent

Context example:

We cannot represent this knowledge to our formal reason

Hypernyms (to "lay out" is one way to...):

say; state; tell (express in words)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lay out"):

argue; reason (present reasons and arguments)

argue; indicate (give evidence of)

spin (twist and turn so as to give an intended interpretation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 5

Meaning:

Provide a detailed plan or design

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

She laid out her plans for the new house

Hypernyms (to "lay out" is one way to...):

plan (make plans for something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lay out"):

block out (plan where and when songs should be inserted into a theatrical production, or plan a theatrical production in general)

loft (lay out a full-scale working drawing of the lines of a vessel's hull)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

layout (the act of laying out (as by making plans for something))

 Context examples 

You’ll be happy and ready to lay out some exciting plans for 2020.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

We have here much data, and we must proceed to lay out our campaign.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You were very popular before you came, because you were Mr. Weston's son—but lay out half a guinea at Ford's, and your popularity will stand upon your own virtues.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I picked up my rifle and strolled in the direction of the brook, leaving my friends to lay out the scanty breakfast.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day, when I permit my zealous historian to lay out his foolscap once more—eh, Watson?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Most existing models that lay out the origin of Titan's lakes show liquid methane dissolving the moon's bedrock of ice and solid organic compounds, carving reservoirs that fill with the liquid.

(New Models Suggest Titan Lakes Are Explosion Craters, NASA)

If you have a fancy for anything in that line, away with you, sir, to the bazaars of Stamboul without delay, and lay out in extensive slave- purchases some of that spare cash you seem at a loss to spend satisfactorily here.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

All this I shall some day write at fuller length, and amidst these more stirring days I would tenderly sketch in these lovely summer evenings, when with the deep blue sky above us we lay in good comradeship among the long grasses by the wood and marveled at the strange fowl that swept over us and the quaint new creatures which crept from their burrows to watch us, while above us the boughs of the bushes were heavy with luscious fruit, and below us strange and lovely flowers peeped at us from among the herbage; or those long moonlit nights when we lay out upon the shimmering surface of the great lake and watched with wonder and awe the huge circles rippling out from the sudden splash of some fantastic monster; or the greenish gleam, far down in the deep water, of some strange creature upon the confines of darkness.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)