relay

noun

1. 1

   rareA new set of hounds.

2. 2

   historicalA new set of horses kept along a specific route so that they can replace animals that are tired.

3. 3

   A new set of anything.

   There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle.

   Bank-notes fluttered down and lay about in all directions, relays of sovereigns rolled away like so much dross, […]

4. 4

   A series of vehicles travelling in sequence.

5. 5

   A competition between teams where members of a team take turns completing parts of a course or performing a certain action.

6. 6

   A competition between teams where members of a team take turns completing parts of a course or performing a certain action. A track and field discipline where runners take turns in carrying a baton from start to finish. The most common events are 4×100 meter and 4×400 meter competitions.

7. 7

   An electrical actuator that allows a relatively small electrical voltage or current to control a larger voltage or current.

verb

1. 1

   To pass on or transfer (information).

   The CCTV cameras relay what's going on to the headquarters.

   Can you relay this message to John?

2. 2

   obsoleteTo release a new set of hounds.

3. 3

   archaicTo place (people or horses) in relays, such that one can take over from another.

4. 4

   archaicTo take on a new relay of horses; to change horses.

verb

1. 1

   Variant of re-layAlternative spelling of re-lay.

   Over this section the 16th class are allowed to haul 800 tons, compared with 600 tons only by the 13th and 14th, and 450 tons by the 12th class engines, and in this way, without any expenditure on civil engineering works or relaying with heavier rails, the introduction of the 16th class has almost doubled the line capacity.

   A reader writes that some Ballachulish branch services are still worked by Class 2 2-6-0s Nos. 46460 and 78052, which have had to be retained at Oban until a tight curve on the outside line of the railway pier, used by coal and oil traffic for the island steamers, has been relaid to standards suitable for the diesels.

Forms

plural

relays

past tense

relayed, relaid

past participle

relayed, relaid

present participle

relaying

third person singular

relays