forelay

• Rhymes: -eɪ

From fore- +‎ lay.

forelay (third-person singular simple present forelays, present participle forelaying, simple past and past participle forelaid)

1. To lay down beforehand
   • a. 1639, Joseph Mede, Discourse V - Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God:

     these grounds being forelaid and understood

   • 1822, The Whole Works of the Rev. John Howe, M.A. with a Memoir of the Author. Vol. VI.:

     I shall, before I instance, only forelay this That we must consider […]

2. To waylay.
   • c. 1624, Joseph Hall, a sermon

     either some secret detractor hath forelaid thee by a whispering misintimation

   • 1913, James B. Connally, Sonnie-Boy's People:

     Again Lavis heard him: "You thought to forelay me, eh — and breed panic above?”

3. To plan; contrive in advance
   • 1917, Charles Neville Buck, The Tyranny of Weakness:

     You folks had better forelay to come aboard by then.

forelay

1. simple past of forelie

• “forelay”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.