XSTAY, v.i. pret. staid, for stayed.

3. Stop; obstruction; hinderance from progress.

Grievd with each step, tormented with each stay.

4. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.

With prudent stay, he long deferrd the rough contention.

5. A fixed state.

Alas, what stay is there in human state!

6. Prop; support.

Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.

My only strength and stay!

The Lord is my stay. Psa 18.

The stay and the staff, the means of supporting and preserving life. Isa 3.

7. Steadiness of conduct.

8. In the rigging of a ship, a large strong rope employed to support the mast, by being extended from its upper end to the stem of the ship. The fore-stay reaches from the foremast head towards the bowsprit end; the main-stay extends to the ships stem; the mizen-stay is stretched to a collar on the main-mast, above the quarter deck, _c.

Stays, in seamanship, implies the operation of going about or changing the course of a ship, with a shifting of the sails. To be in stays, is to lie with the head to the wind, and the sails so arranged as to check her progress.

To miss stays, to fail in the attempt to go about.