What does Charles Dickens mean when he writes, "What shall we do to stay it?", in...

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...December Visions? where does the term, "stay it" come from, what does it mean?

 

[notyou311]

It means to stop it. It comes from the idea that if things stay as they are they are stopped from changing.

 

[Ashley Jeanne]

It actually means two, related things:

1) To stay a process means to sop it from going forward, that is, to make it stay as is.

2) To stay the course means to remain on the same, steady course without changing direction.

The two things have the common feature of maintaining things as they are: to stay as is.