lay an egg

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

lay an egg (third-person singular simple present lays an egg, present participle laying an egg, simple past and past participle laid an egg)

1. (of a bird or other egg-creating animal) To produce an egg.
2. (idiomatic, of a person, organization, etc.) To produce a failure or flop; to do something which is unsuccessful.

   That author usually writes good stuff, but he really laid an egg with that last piece.

Translations

to produce an egg

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 產卵／产卵 (caan² leon^5-2, caan² leon⁵)

  Mandarin: 產卵／产卵 (zh) (chǎnluǎn)

• Dutch: leggen (nl)
• Esperanto: demeti ovon (eo)
• Estonian: munema
• Faroese: verpa
• Finnish: munia (fi)
• French: pondre un œuf (fr)
• Friulian: ovâ
• German: ein Ei legen (de)
• Hungarian: tojást rak (hu)
• Icelandic: verpa eggi (is)
• Ido: ovifar (io)
• Interlingua: poner ovo
• Japanese: 産卵する (ja) (sanran suru), 卵を生む (ja) (たまごをうむ, tamago wo umu)
• Polish: składać jajo impf, złożyć jajo pf, składać jaja (pl) impf, złożyć jaja (pl) pf
• Portuguese: pôr um ovo (pt), botar um ovo (pt), ovar
• Romanian: oua (ro)
• Russian: снести́ яйцо́ pf (snestí jajcó), отложи́ть яйцо́ pf (otložítʹ jajcó)
• Spanish: poner un huevo (es), ovar (es)
• Swedish: värpa (sv)
• Thai: วางไข่ (th) (waang-kài)
• Walloon: ponre èn oû (wa)e

to produce a failure or flop

• Finnish: munata (fi), epäonnistua (fi)
• French: faire un bide (fr), faire un flop (fr)
• Italian: fare un buco nell'acqua (literally “make a hole in the water”)
• Japanese: 失敗する (しっぱい する, shippai suru)
• Portuguese: fazer fiasco, fracassar (pt)
• Russian: сесть в лу́жу pf (sestʹ v lúžu, literally “sit into a puddle”), сесть в кало́шу pf (sestʹ v kalóšu, literally “sit into a galosh”), провали́ться (ru) pf (provalítʹsja), потерпе́ть неуда́чу pf (poterpétʹ neudáču)
• Spanish: poner un huevo, fracasar (es)