La"i*ty (?), n. [See Lay, a.]

1.

The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of the people not in orders.

A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal caste. Macaulay.

2.

The state of a layman.

[Obs.]

Ayliffe.

3.

Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it.

 

© Webster 1913.

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