[f. STAY v.1 + -ING2.] That stays.
1. In intransitive senses. † a. With complement, as staying silent. Obs. b. Continuing in a place.
1570. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 115. Those that haue ye inuentiuest heades … and roundest tonges … (except they learne and vse this good lesson of Epitome) commit commonlie greater faultes, than dull, staying silent men do.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xli. (1893), 217. The staying guests could not do much for the good things set out.
1865. Flor. Marryat, Love’s Conflict, I. xiv. 225. In some cases it is not the staying horse who wins.
2. In transitive senses: Arresting.
1902. Daily Chron., 2 Sept., 5/1. There is yet time for a staying hand, which would preserve some plain brickwork in the interior.
Hence Stayingly adv. rare–0.
1648. Hexham, II. Blijvelick, Durable, or Stayingly.
