Word Confusion: Remain versus Stay

Plural for the noun: remains
Gerund: remaining

Third person present verb: remains
Past tense or past participle: remained
Present participle: remaining

Plural for the noun: stays
Gerund: staying

Third person present verb: stays
Past tense or past participle: stayed
Present participle: staying

Miscellaneous, fragmentary, or other writings still unpublished at the time of an author’s death

Traces of some quality, condition, etc.

A dead body

• Corpse

Parts or substances remaining from animal or plant life that occur in the earth’s crust or strata

[Obsolete] Stay

Verb, intransitive:
Continue to exist, especially after other similar or related people or things have ceased to exist

• To stay behind or in the same place
• [With complement] Continue to possess a particular quality or fulfill a particular role
• Be left over after others or other parts have been completed, removed, used, or dealt with

To be left to be done, told, shown, etc.

• To be left after the removal, loss, passage, or destruction of others
• To be left as still to be dealt with

To be reserved or in store

[Literary] A curb or check

• [Law] A suspension or postponement of judicial proceedings

A device used as a brace or support Sense 3

• [guyline] A rope, chain, rod, or wire attached to something as a brace or guide
• [Historical; stays] A corset made of two pieces laced together and stiffened by strips of whalebone

[Archaic] Power of endurance

A large rope, wire, or rod used to support a ship’s mast, leading from the masthead to another mast or spar or down to the deck ²

• A guy or rope supporting a flagpole or other upright pole
• A supporting wire or cable on an aircraft

Verb, linking:
If someone or something stays in a particular state or situation, they continue to be in it

Verb, intransitive:
[Usually with adverbial] Remain in the same place ¹

• [stay for, stay to] Delay leaving so as to join in (an activity)

[Usually with adverbial] Remain in a specified state or position

[Of a person] Live somewhere temporarily as a visitor or guest

• [Scottish & South African] Live permanently
• [In imperative; Archaic] Wait a moment in order to allow someone time to think or speak

Verb, transitive:
Stop, delay, or prevent (something), in particular suspend or postpone (judicial proceedings) or refrain from pressing (charges) ¹

• Assuage (hunger) for a short time
• [Literary] Curb
• Check

[Literary] Support or prop up Sense 4

Secure or steady (a mast) by means of stays ²

The estates of authors handle the remains of their work in a myriad of ways.

“Twisted scraps of metal are all that remain of homes and family cars” (Mccausland).

“None of the arguments in his remain column are surprising” (Williams).

His remains were shipped home.

The preserved remains of a dinosaur were found in a farmer’s field.

The organic remains of an ancient Roman farmhouse were found recently.

Verb, intransitive:
She has broken her leg, but it remains to be seen how badly.

A cloister is all that remains of the monastery.

Only the ruins remain.

Her husband remained at the beach condo.

He had remained alert the whole time.

Several years remain in the transition period.

The front wall is all that remains of the fort.

Only the dishwashing remains.

Rubble is all that remains after the quake.

It remains to be pointed out.

Only three bottles remained.

Only a few trees remained after the storm.

A cure remains to be found.

She remains at peace.

I’ll remain here when you go to the airport.

Despite the passing of so many years, the fond memories remain.

There is likely to be a good public library as a stay against boredom.

There was a stay of prosecution.

Get a knee brace support with side stays and compression.

Pull those stays tighter.

“The round was equipped with a delay fuse set before firing that detonated the shell at the set altitude; on explosion, the steel stays and the incendiary tubes were ejected in a 20-degree cone forward, with the shell fragments from the explosion itself further increasing the amount of debris” (San).

Some men are always great at beginnings; but they have no stay in them.

I eased off on the line while Patrick took up the tension on the side stays.

The lack of stays to stiffen the masts leaves them with springiness.

With a height of sixteen yards, you’ll need three stays starting four yards below the top of the pole and attached to the ground at a point that is nine yards from the base of the pole.

This shackle is ideal for your stays.

Verb, linking:
The Republican candidate said he would “work like crazy to stay ahead”.

There are several community care networks that offer classes on how to stay healthy.

Tom remains cheerful.

Verb, intransitive:
You stay here and I’ll be back soon.

Jenny decided to stay at home with their young child.

He stayed with the firm as a consultant.

Why not stay for lunch?

Her ability to stay calm was her greatest asset.

The tactics he used to stay in power were traitorous.

I managed to stay out of trouble.

The girls had gone to stay with friends.

Minton invited him to stay the night.

Where do you stay?

Stay, stand apart, I know not which is which.

How long can you stay in Brussels?

She was staying in the same hotel as I was.

Verb, transitive:
We stayed the mast on the starboard side by shifting the halyard.

Stay the ship!

There was a stay of execution.

I grabbed something to stay the pangs of hunger.

He tries to stay the destructive course of barbarism.

It did not matter to you whether the building was stayed up or not?

Success in small businesses requires determination to stay the course.

1. Late Middle English (as a verb) from Anglo-Norman French estai-, a stem of the Old French ester, from the Latin stare meaning to stand; in the sense support (sense 4 of the verb) and (sense 3 of the noun), partly from the Old French estaye noun), estayer verb), of Germanic origin.
2. Old English stæg is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch stag, from a base meaning be firm.