verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To hold back; oppose; withstand. transitive

   "Death, careful of my learning, hath withstayed His final presence."

Synonyms

All synonyms

gainstaygainstay

Example

More examples

"Death, careful of my learning, hath withstayed His final presence."

Etymology

From with- (“back, against”) + stay.

Related phrases

hold back

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.