Lain Meaning
/leɪn/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbpast participle of lie (“to be oriented in a horizontal position, situated”)
verbpast participle of lay (“to put down”)
Sentence Examples
He has lain there for an hour.
This is the first time I've ever lain on this grass.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After a long hike, he had ____ down on the grass to rest his tired legs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old ruins have ____ undisturbed in the middle of the deep forest for many hundreds of years now.
Word Origin & History
Inflected forms.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I ascended to my room, and lay down upon the bed. A whole hour I must have lain thus, with my head resting upon my hand."
— 1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter XII, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/XII):
"Also broder sir Agrauayne and sir mordred in lyke wyse sir Launcelot rescowed yow bothe and thre score and two from sir Turquyn / Me thynketh broder suche kynde dedes and kyndenes shold be remembryd / doo as ye lyst sayd syr Agrauayne for I wylle layne it no lenger"
— 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “j”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XX:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After a long hike, he had ____ down on the grass to rest his tired legs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old ruins have ____ undisturbed in the middle of the deep forest for many hundreds of years now.