verb

• (intransitive) To remain in a particular place, especially for a definite or short period of time; sojourn; abide.
  "We stayed in Hawaii for a week.  I can only stay for an hour."
• (intransitive, copulative) To continue to have a particular quality.
  "Wear gloves so your hands stay warm."
• (transitive) To prop; support; sustain; hold up; steady.
  "Lord Mayor of London. See, where he stands between two clergymen! Duke of Buckingham. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince, To stay him from the fall of vanity:"
• (transitive) To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
  "[…] he has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter, as fast as Phoebe could cut it, and it has not staid his stomach for a minute […]"

noun

• (law) A postponement, especially of an execution or other punishment.
  "The governor granted a stay of execution."
• (archaic) A stop; a halt; a break or cessation of action, motion, or progress.
  "stand at a stay"
• (nautical) A station or fixed anchorage for vessels.
• (obsolete) Hindrance; let; check.
  "They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false."

noun

• (in the plural) A corset.
  "Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays."
• (archaic) A fastening for a garment; a hook; a clasp; anything to hang another thing on.

noun

• (nautical) A strong rope or wire supporting a mast, and leading from one masthead down to some other, or other part of the vessel.