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Lie in wait   /laɪ ɪn weɪt/   Listen
verb
Lie  v. i.  (past lay; past part. lain, obs. lien; pres. part. lying)  
1.
To rest extended on the ground, a bed, or any support; to be, or to put one's self, in an horizontal position, or nearly so; to be prostate; to be stretched out; often with down, when predicated of living creatures; as, the book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin. "The watchful traveler... Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes."
2.
To be situated; to occupy a certain place; as, Ireland lies west of England; the meadows lie along the river; the ship lay in port.
3.
To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition; as, to lie waste; to lie fallow; to lie open; to lie hid; to lie grieving; to lie under one's displeasure; to lie at the mercy of the waves; the paper does not lie smooth on the wall.
4.
To be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist; with in. "Envy lies between beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances." "He that thinks that diversion may not lie in hard labor, forgets the early rising and hard riding of huntsmen."
5.
To lodge; to sleep. "Whiles I was now trifling at home, I saw London,... where I lay one night only." "Mr. Quinion lay at our house that night."
6.
To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest. "The wind is loud and will not lie."
7.
(Law) To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained. "An appeal lies in this case." Note: Through ignorance or carelessness speakers and writers often confuse the forms of the two distinct verbs lay and lie. Lay is a transitive verb, and has for its preterit laid; as, he told me to lay it down, and I laid it down. Lie is intransitive, and has for its preterit lay; as, he told me to lie down, and I lay down. Some persons blunder by using laid for the preterit of lie; as, he told me to lie down, and I laid down. So persons often say incorrectly, the ship laid at anchor; they laid by during the storm; the book was laying on the shelf, etc. It is only necessary to remember, in all such cases, that laid is the preterit of lay, and not of lie.
To lie along the shore (Naut.), to coast, keeping land in sight.
To lie at the door of, to be imputable to; as, the sin, blame, etc., lies at your door.
To lie at the heart, to be an object of affection, desire, or anxiety.
To lie at the mercy of, to be in the power of.
To lie by.
(a)
To remain with; to be at hand; as, he has the manuscript lying by him.
(b)
To rest; to intermit labor; as, we lay by during the heat of the day.
To lie hard or To lie heavy, to press or weigh; to bear hard.
To lie in, to be in childbed; to bring forth young.
To lie in one, to be in the power of; to belong to. "As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."
To lie in the way, to be an obstacle or impediment.
To lie in wait, to wait in concealment; to lie in ambush.
To lie on or To lie upon.
(a)
To depend on; as, his life lies on the result.
(b)
To bear, rest, press, or weigh on.
To lie low, to remain in concealment or inactive. (Slang)
To lie on hand,
To lie on one's hands, to remain unsold or unused; as, the goods are still lying on his hands; they have too much time lying on their hands.
To lie on the head of, to be imputed to. "What he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head."
To lie over.
(a)
To remain unpaid after the time when payment is due, as a note in bank.
(b)
To be deferred to some future occasion, as a resolution in a public deliberative body.
To lie to (Naut.), to stop or delay; especially, to head as near the wind as possible as being the position of greatest safety in a gale; said of a ship. Cf. To bring to, under Bring.
To lie under, to be subject to; to suffer; to be oppressed by.
To lie with.
(a)
To lodge or sleep with.
(b)
To have sexual intercourse with.
(c)
To belong to; as, it lies with you to make amends.



noun
Wait  n.  
1.
The act of waiting; a delay; a halt. "There is a wait of three hours at the border Mexican town of El Paso."
2.
Ambush. "An enemy in wait."
3.
One who watches; a watchman. (Obs.)
4.
pl. Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians; not used in the singular. (Obs.)
5.
pl. Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. (Written formerly wayghtes) "Hark! are the waits abroad?" "The sound of the waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony."
To lay wait, to prepare an ambuscade.
To lie in wait. See under 4th Lie.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Lie in wait" Quotes from Famous Books



... while, at the same time drawn to it by force of its hypnotic attraction. Strangely enough, beauty has been regarded as the most dangerous enemy of the soul, and the powers of darkness that are supposed to lie in wait for that frail and fluttering psyche, so precious and apparently so perishable, are usually represented as taking shapes of beguiling loveliness—lamias, loreleis, wood nymphs, and witches with blue flowers for ...
— Vanishing Roads and Other Essays • Richard Le Gallienne

... casks and other necessaries; which having done, they designed for the river Methelage, on the west side of Madagascar, in the lat. of 16 degrees or thereabouts, to salt up provisions and to proceed to the East Indies, cruise off the islands of St. John, and lie in wait for ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms

... stall full of parliament gingerbread (whereat Annie fell into convulsions of laughing), and Hal should be the first to stop it, and jump on its back, and ride out of the fair holding it by the ears; and then they should pop it into the sty unknown to Hannah Higgins, and all lie in wait to hear what would happen; and when it squealed, she would think it the baby crying; but there Susan burst out at the notion of any one thinking a child could scream like a pig, taking it as an affront to all babyhood; and Miss Fosbrook took the ...
— The Stokesley Secret • Charlotte M. Yonge

... country the towns squat low in the valleys, they lie in wait by the rivers, and often I scarcely know of their presence until I am so close upon them that I can smell the breath of their heated nostrils and hear ...
— The Friendly Road - New Adventures in Contentment • (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

... their slightest gestures; for their white robes and black cloaks stand sharply out against the monotonous rose of the desert. At times they call to one another in a harsh, aspirate tongue, and then go off at a run, noiselessly, barefooted, with burnous flying, like moths in the night. They lie in wait for the parties of tourists who arrive from time to time. For the great symbols, during the hundreds and thousands of years that have elapsed since men ceased to venerate them, have nevertheless scarcely ever been alone, especially on ...
— Egypt (La Mort De Philae) • Pierre Loti


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