to lay over
- phrasal verb
- /leɪ ˈoʊvər/
- US
:
hacer escala
- We had to lay over in Toronto for the night before continuing our trip to Vancouver.
Examples
-
What are you going to do when we lay over in Panama city?
-
How long you're gonna lay over.
-
At sea almost continually for more than ten months since Montevideo, the French lay over for three weeks recuperating and refitting at Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies.
Fiction book (1991) -
During our flight to Japan, we will lay over in San Francisco for a few hours.
-
If we lay over in London, we can explore the city before heading to Rome.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To pause a journey to stay at a place
111
7.0
To sleep somewhere for a short time without planning to
70
3.0
Sleep at someone else's home for the night
63
2.8
To stay at someone else's house for the night
8
3.6
To stay somewhere for a short time, often overnight, before continuing a trip
Antonyms
How Long
207
3.7
∞
1.0
- US
8
3.6
∞
1.0
346
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to place something on top of another object' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'lay' (to set or position something) with 'over' (indicating position on top/covering). This compositional pattern (verb + spatial particle/preposition) is common across languages and follows ordinary English usage, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Lay over comes from the simple image of lay meaning to rest and over meaning at a place. Imagine a plane that stops and rests at an airport for a night; that's why lay over means 'to interrupt a journey temporarily and stay somewhere before continuing'.