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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Stay, adj. (adv.). Also: staye, stey. [Prob. *OE stǽᵹe. Cf. OE stǽᵹel steep, stīᵹen to climb. Cf., also, ON stegi, stigi a steep ascent. Also in the later dial.]

A. adj. 1. Of a mountain, bank, way, route, etc.: Steep, hence, difficult to negotiate, not easy of access; sheer. b. Of a roof: (Steeply) pitched.attrib. a1400 Leg. S. xvi 813.
That roche hey & stay [: lay] c1420 Wynt. i 862 (C).
Hillis hie … And craggis staye [W. strait, R. strayt] 1513 Doug. xii xii 144.
The strait and stay bankis gret hycht 1533 Bell. Livy I 106/3.
Ane stay discente callit Virbuis 1533 Bell. Livy I 181/23.
The stay montanis quhare his inemyis lay 1533 Bell. Livy II 214/24.
Traisting the more hie that thai war clummyn vp, thai mycht the more eselie be dung doun agane be the stay brayis thareof 1596 Dalr. I 51/18.
With sik force thay [sc. salmon] passe to the riueris … that … thay leip quhair thay find impediment, ouer a stay bank or hich fal of water ?1549 Monro W. Isles (1961) 58.
Ane little ile callit Corsker, callit in English the stay skeray or craig 1581-1623 James VI Poems I 224/413.
Staiest 1628 Reg. Privy C. 2 Ser. II 379.
[He put] violent hands in the said Patrik Bullo and … flang him ower ane high and stay brae 1630-1651 Gordon Geneal. Hist. 346.
The Ord … is a commoun bot a verie difficult stay and high passage betuein Southerland and Catteynes 16… Macfarlane's Geog. Coll. III 121.
The entry from the burgh, which is a stay ascentproverb. a1628 Carmichael Prov. No. 1342.
Set a stout heart against a stay braepredic. 1375 Barb. xix 321.
Thar wes ane hycht … till the water doune, sum-deill stay 1375 Barb. x 25. a1605 Montg. Ch. & Slae 296 (L).
The craig was stay and schoir a1605 Montg. Ch. & Slae 1523 (Wr.).
The way heere so stay heere Is, that wee cannot clim c1590 J. Stewart 208 § 32.
The entres is so strait and stay Quhilk leeds to lyf 1600-1610 Melvill lxiii.
Stay is the ledder of death, and leith is flesh to clim it c1615 Chron. Kings 117.
The hill being stay to the northe and eist, the rest being playnnar(b) 1566-70 Buch. Comm. on Virgil Æn. i 105.
Praeruptus, stey c1610 Melville Mem. 24.
They … wer brunt with the fyre brandis that they did row doun the stey bra c1610 Melville Mem. 25.
A gret heicht that had a stey foirfaice towardis the part wher our camp layb. 1687 Edinb. B. Rec. XI 222.
The neighbors … were compleaning they wold be greatly prejudged by the making a stay rooff upon the whole fabric therof and that for the neighbors accomodation [blank] there may be a part of the said rooff theiked with lead … which wold occasion the lumbs not to be of that hight they … must be if the whole be made with a stay rooff

2. transf. Of persons or things, in lit. and fig. use: Stiff, upright, unbending; reserved, haughty, proud. 1570 J. Maitland in Sat. P. xxxvii 47.
Gif ȝe beir strange, thai ȝow esteme our stay a1605 Montg. Misc. P. xxvii 36.
Nou I must rot, vha some tym stoud so stay a1605 Montg. Sonn. xxxii 2.
I love the lillie … Vhose staitly stalk so streight vp is and stay 1581-1623 James VI Poems II 18/12.
But yett the uikkedd lookis so hie & stay As he for all this matter uill not caire 1632 Lithgow Trav. x 503.
This patrones crescent stands so stay

B. adv. Steeply. 1603 E. Melville Godlie Dreame 254.
This godlie way althocht it seime sa fair It is to hie thou cannot clim so stay