Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

lay down one's life

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.18 in modern English

Syllables: lay -down one's life
IPA

25

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

2

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To give one's life, to die.

Literary

Example Sentences

"Gold was there, and get at it they would, and at any cost. Many of our fellow-passengers suffered a rude awakening, and more than one man laid down his life in the quest for gold that had taken so fierce a hold upon him."
"Only history can tell us where China will go from here. The Chinese leadership's brutal crackdown on students seeking fundamental democratic rights makes it difficult to chart the future. Those brave students who laid down their lives against the tanks of Tiananmen Square confirmed what I'd always believed: that no totalitarian society can bottle up the instinctive drive of men and women to be free, and that once you give a captive people a little freedom, they'll demand still more."

Usage

Literary

Inflected Forms

lays down one's life (present, singular) laying down one's life (participle, present) laid down one's life (participle, past) laid down one's life (past)

Questions

What does lay down one's life mean?: To give one's life, to die.

How to pronounce lay down one's life

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