Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - stay

~1 v 1 »IN A PLACE« to stop and remain in a place rather than go or leave  (stay (for) an hour/a while etc)  (Can't you stay a little longer? | stay late)  (I had to stay later than planned at work. | stay here/there)  (Stay right there! I'll be back in a minute. | stay to dinner/stay for lunch)  (Can you stay for supper? | stay behind (=remain after others have gone))  (I stayed behind to help clean up after the party.) 2 »IN A POSITION« linking verb) to continue to be in a particular position, place, or state, without changing  (stay calm/quiet/warm etc)  (It's going to stay cold for the next few days. | You'd think he could stay sober for once.) + away/back/on etc  (Stay away from my daughter! | Get out of this house and stay out! | You stay on this road for one mile before turning off.) stay in/out (=not leave your home, or remain away from home)  (I won't have you staying out on a school night. | stay up (=not go to bed))  (I stayed up late to watch the film. | stay in a job (=keep doing it))  (I don't know whether to stay in teaching or not. | stay around informal (=not leave someone))  (How do you know he'll stay around? | stay up/down/the same etc (=remain at the same level))  (House prices have stayed down for a whole year. | stay out of spoken (=not get involved))  (Stay out of this, Ben, it's none of your business.) 3 »LIVE SOMEWHERE« to live in a place for a while as a visitor or guest + at/with  (We stayed at the hotel for four nights. | My mother is staying with us this week. | stay the night/stay overnight/stay over (=stay from one evening to the next day))  (You can stay overnight if you don't want to drive home.) 4 stay put spoken to remain in one place and not move  (You stay put in the car while I run into the store!) 5 be here to stay to become accepted and used by most people  (Do you think computers are here to stay?) 6 stay after school to remain at school after the day's classes are finished, often as a punishment 7 stay the course informal to finish something in spite of difficulties  (Working in sales is very demanding and not many of our people stay the course..) 8 »STOP« literary to stop doing something, or stop someone from doing something 9 stay! used to tell a dog not to move stay on phr v to continue to do a job or to study after the usual or expected time for leaving  ("I thought your contract was done." "It is, but I'm staying on.") ~2 n 1 C usually singular a limited time of living in a place  (I met her towards the end of my stay in Los Angeles. | a short stay in the hospital) 2 law the stopping or delay of an action because a judge has ordered it  (stay of execution (=a delay of the punishment)) 3 a strong wire or rope used for supporting a ship's mast (1) 4 a short piece of plastic, bone, or wire used to keep a shirt collar1 (1) or a corset stiff 5 stays a corset