5 ms·

Interesting, I never encountered this phrase as well – is it dialect?

• disputin 12y ago
  A stay of execution.
• dmm 12y ago
  One of the definitions of stay is to stop something. So "I can't stay sleep." means "I can't stop sleep". Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: V, iii: "..But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight Return'd my letter back. "
• wavefunction 12y ago
  It's just an awkward/antiquated phrasing. "Stay" isn't used much anymore except for "stay of execution."
  • dllthomas 12y ago
    Also, "stay one's hand". Still rare and a bit antiquated, but occurs more frequently than "stay" in this sense more generally (... is my impression). For some data: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=stay+my+hand+%2B+stay+your+hand+%2B+stay+his+hand+%2B+stay+her+hand+%2B+stay+their+hands%2Cstay+of+execution&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%28stay%20my%20hand%20%2B%20stay%20your%20hand%20%2B%20stay%20his%20hand%20%2B%20stay%20her%20hand%20%2B%20stay%20their%20hands%29%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstay%20of%20execution%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=stay+my+hand+%...
• LukeShu 12y ago
  I (USA/Indiana) have mostly only encountered it in legal matters (recently: "Judge Young stayed today's order until ...").