Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb Nautical To secure or make fast (a rope, for example) by winding on a cleat or pin.
  • intransitive verb To provide security to (a climber) by paying out or drawing in rope, often through a braking device, in readiness to break a potential fall.
  • intransitive verb To cause to stop.
  • intransitive verb To be made secure.
  • intransitive verb Used in the imperative as an order to stop.
  • noun The act of belaying a climber.
  • noun A system of ropes and anchors by which a climber is belayed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To surround; environ; inclose.
  • To overlay; adorn.
  • To besiege; invest; surround.
  • To lie in wait for in order to attack; hence, to block up or obstruct.
  • Nautical, to fasten, or make fast, by winding round a belaying-pin, cleat, or cavel: applied chiefly to running rigging.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To lay on or cover; to adorn.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To make fast, as a rope, by taking several turns with it round a pin, cleat, or kevel.
  • transitive verb obsolete To lie in wait for with a view to assault. Hence: to block up or obstruct.
  • transitive verb Stop.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, obsolete To surround; environ; inclose.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To overlay; adorn.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To besiege; invest; surround.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To lie in wait for in order to attack; block up or obstruct.
  • verb transitive To make (a rope) fast by turning it round a fastening point such as a cleat or piton.
  • verb transitive To secure (a person) to a rope or (a rope) to a person.
  • verb transitive To lay aside; stop; cancel.
  • verb intransitive, nautical The general command to stop or cease.
  • verb intransitive, nautical To make a line fast by turns around a cleat, pin, or bitt.
  • noun climbing The securing of a rope to a rock or other projection.
  • noun climbing The object to which a rope is secured.
  • noun climbing A location at which a climber stops and builds an anchor with which to secure his/or her partner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fasten a boat to a bitt, pin, or cleat
  • noun something to which a mountain climber's rope can be secured
  • verb turn a rope round an object or person in order to secure it or him

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bileggen, to surround, from Old English belecgan; see legh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English beleggen, bileggen, from Old English belecgan ("to cover, invest, surround, afflict, attribute to, charge with, accuse"), equivalent to be- +‎ lay. Cognate with Dutch beleggen ("to cover, overlay, belay"), German belegen ("to cover, occupy, belay"), Swedish belägga ("to pave").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "'Boat your oars,' said Jack. 'Clap on to the halliard — no, the halliard. God's death — haul away. Bear a hand, Stephen. Belay. Catch a couple of turns round the kevel — the kevel.'

    "The scow gave a violent lurch. Jack dropped all, scrambled forward, caught two turns round the kevel and slid back to the tiller. The sail filled, he brought the wind a little abaft the beam, and the scow headed out to sea.

    "'You are cursed snappish tonight, Jack,' said Stephen. 'How do you expect me to understand your altumal cant, without pondering on it? I do not expect you to understand medical jargon, without giving you time to consider the etymology, for all love.'

    "'Not to know the odds between a halliard and a sheet, after all these years at sea: it passes human understanding,' said Jack.

    "'You are a reasonably civil, complaisant creature on dry land,' said Stephen, but the moment you are afloat you become pragmatical and absolute, a bashaw — do this, do that, gluppit the prawling strangles, there — no longer a social being at all. It is no doubt the effect of the long-continued habit of command; but it cannot be considered amiable.'

    "Diana said nothing: she had a considerable experience and she knew that if men were to be at all tolerable they must be fed..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Fortune of War, p. 272

    February 6, 2008

  • "Police have recovered the body of a man in his 70s after his car crashed into Melbourne's Yarra River. It is believed he lost control of the car while driving along Yarra Boulevard at Kew, crashing through a fence and down an embankment. It landed in the water 70 metres below.

    Sergeant Simon Brand says getting access to the scene was difficult. '(It was a) very steep embankment,' he said. 'We actually had to rope belay the diver down to the water.'

    - Driver's body recovered after Yarra River plunge, abc.net.au, 21 Nov 2011.

    November 21, 2011

  • This word is used in Star Trek a lot.

    June 21, 2012