belay
see also: Belay
Etymology 1
Belay
Proper noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
see also: Belay
Etymology 1
From Middle English beleggen, bileggen, from Old English beleċġan, From Proto-West Germanic *bilaggjan, equivalent to
belay (belays, present participle belaying; simple past and past participle belayed)
- (ambitransitive, nautical) To make (a rope) fast by turning it around a fastening point such as a cleat.
- (transitive, climbing) To handle a climbing rope to prevent (a climber) from falling to the ground.
- He would need an experienced partner to belay him on the difficult climbs.
- (transitive) To lay aside; to stop; to cancel.
- I could only hope the remaining piton would belay his fall.
- Belay that order!
- (intransitive, nautical) The general command to stop or cease.
- (transitive, obsolete) To surround; to environ; to enclose.
- (transitive, obsolete) To overlay; to adorn.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 5:
- jacket […] belayd with silver lace
- (transitive, obsolete) To besiege; invest; surround.
- (transitive, obsolete) To lie in wait for in order to attack; block up or obstruct.
- Italian: dare volta, assicurare
- French: assurer
- German: sichern
- Italian: assicurare
- Russian: страхова́ть
belay (plural belays)
- (climbing) The securing of a rope to a rock or other projection.
- (climbing) The object to which a rope is secured.
- (climbing) A location at which a climber stops and builds an anchor with which to secure their partner.
- 1967, Anthony Greenbank, Instructions in Mountaineering, page 84:
- But instead of swapping over at the ice axe belay, you carry on in the lead, cutting or kicking steps until you are about twenty feet above.
- IPA: /bɪˈleɪ/
- simple past of belie (“encompass”)
Belay
Proper noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
