lay open

Idioms and Phrases

Expose; also, make vulnerable to. For example, The audit laid open some suspicious dealings , or She had not laid herself open to any charge of wrongdoing . The first usage dates from the mid-1500s, the second from the mid-1800s. Also see leave open .

Example Sentences

His hard-shell suitcase lay open on the bed.

From Los Angeles Times

The seventeenth-century English polymath Thomas Hobbes is said to have glanced at a copy of The Elements that lay open in a library when he was a 40-year-old man.

From Literature

By the end of the show, my notebook lay open on the coffee table filled with notes and sketches.

From Literature

When it finally lay open on the table, I couldn’t help but gawk in wonder at my iPhone 13 Mini’s precisely packed guts, and I realized I was having fun!

From The Verge

Edna seated herself at the piano, and softly picked out with one hand the bars of a piece of music which lay open before her.

From Literature

Related Words

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• summon