lay about

See also: layabout

English

Verb

lay about (third-person singular simple present lays about, present participle laying about, simple past and past participle laid about)

  1. To strike blows in all directions.
    • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2:
      [...] At beating quarters up, or forage, / Behaved herself with matchless courage; / And laid about in fight more busily / Than th' Amazonian Dame Penthesile.
    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 63:
      Alone he could have sprung into the midst of that close-packed mob, and, laying about him after the fashion of Numa, the lion, have struck the Arabs with such consternation that escape would have been easy.
  2. To set about, with infinitive or gerund.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lay,‎ about.

Translations

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