1
as in to spread
to put a layer of on a surface
she lays the butter on so thickly that you hardly taste the bagel
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to employ
chiefly British
to provide with a paying job
lay on more staff for the busy tourist season in the Lake District
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lay on
Verb
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Flames raced through rows of vehicles at a Rancho Cordova salvage yard Friday evening, engulfing between 50 and 100 vehicles before more than 70 firefighters contained the blaze and kept it from spreading to neighboring businesses.
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If using grounds, apply in 1 to 2-inch deep layers and make sure the coffee is spread in an unbroken line so slugs and snails won’t cross it.
Verb
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Krystal McFeders, a Unified Government spokesperson, confirmed Friday night that Chism is employed by the government.
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Should economic growth threaten one of those aspects, the FOMC is employed to move in order to deliver its objectives.
Verb
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Wiener asked for amendments to the bill during the bill’s review and in the committee meeting, including that the lifetime ban only be applied to Tier 3 members.
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The ruling establishes the legal standard going forward and does not change the law that applied previously.
Verb
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Participants in the civil proceedings can hire private stenographers to maintain a record of what’s said, but their services can run thousands of dollars a day.
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Under basic labor law, MLB could hire temporary workers during a lockout, but that is not going to happen.
Verb
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The pilot program has laid bare a host of questions about the role of AI in medicine, including how it should be regulated, whether doctors should be able to veto it, and what kind of safety measures are needed to protect patients.
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During his 24 years on the Board of Supervisors, Haggerty’s vision of a connected Bay Area laid the groundwork for some of the largest infrastructure projects under construction today.
Verb
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At that point, college programs weren’t lining up to recruit a 187-pound pass rusher who hadn’t played a down of high school football.
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There is a warning in all of this for the companies working hardest to recruit and retain young Black talent.
Verb
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The restaurant sources its birotes from Duran’s to make the open-face, bean and cheese-smeared breakfast sandwiches popular throughout Mexico.
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That slows down the process of multiple shockwaves merging into larger ones and allows the atmosphere to weaken the smaller shockwaves to smear out the sharp pressure change into a more gradual increase.
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Lay vs. Lie
Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference.
Cite this Entry
“Lay on.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lay%20on. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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