From Middle English beleggen, bileggen, from Old English beleċġan, From Proto-West Germanic *bilaggjan, equivalent to .

• Verb:
  • (America) IPA: /bɪˈleɪ/
  • (British) IPA: /ˈbiːleɪ/, /bɪˈleɪ/
• Noun:
  • IPA: /ˈbiːleɪ/

belay (belays, present participle belaying; simple past and past participle belayed)

1. (ambitransitive, nautical) To make (a rope) fast by turning it around a fastening point such as a cleat.
2. (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.

3. (transitive) To lay aside; to stop; to cancel.

   I could only hope the remaining piton would belay his fall.

   Belay that order!

4. (intransitive, nautical) The general command to stop or cease.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To surround; to environ; to enclose.
6. (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

7. (transitive, obsolete) To besiege; invest; surround.
8. (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

• German: beenden
• Russian: отставить

belay (plural belays)

1. (climbing) The securing of a rope to a rock or other projection.
2. (climbing) The object to which a rope is secured.
3. (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/

1. simple past of belie (“encompass”)

1. Surname.