a. Sc. Forms: 4– stay, 6– stey, 9 erron. steigh. [? repr. OE. *stǽʓe (:—prehistoric *staiʓjo-), f. OTeut. *staiʓ-: *stĭʓ- to climb: see STY v. Cf. OE. stǽʓel steep.]
1. Of a mountain, cliff, etc.: Approaching the perpendicular, difficult of ascent, steep.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 25. On the owthir half ane montane was So cumrouss, and ek so stay, That it wes hard to pas that way.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xvi. (Magdalene), 813. Þat roche hey & stay.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. viii. 56. A port thair is,… With rochis set forgane the streme full stay.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, II. 214/24. Þai mycht þe more eselie be dung doun agane be þe stay brayis þareof.
c. 1590. J. Stewart, Poems (S.T.S.), II. 208. The entres is so strait and stay, Quhilk leeds to lyf.
1597. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 357. The craige was vgly, stay and dreich.
1710. Ruddiman, Gloss. Douglas’ Æneis, Stay,… steep: As we say Scot. a stay brae.
1721. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 287. Set a stout Heart to a stay Brea.
1786. Burns, To Auld Mare, xiv. The steyest brae thou wad hae fac’t it.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 250. They gang swinging up the stey streets without sweetin.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xv. 168. There was he hingin’ by a line an’ speldering on the craig face, whaur it’s hieest and steighest.
† 2. transf. Unbending, upright. Also of a person: Reserved, haughty. Obs.
a. 1586. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxvii. 47. Gif ȝe beir strange, þai ȝow esteme our stay.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xxvii. 36. Nou I must rot, vha some tym stoud so stay. Ibid. (a. 1605), Sonn., xxxii. 2. I love the lillie as the first of flours, Vhose staitly stalk so streight vp is and stay.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 503. This Patrones Crescent stands so stay.
