lay vs should

lay

verb
  • simple past tense of lie when pertaining to position. 

  • To take a position; to come or go. 

  • To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position. 

  • To don or put on (tefillin (phylacteries)). 

  • To have sex with. 

  • To place (new type) properly in the cases. 

  • To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone. 

  • To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.). 

  • To produce and deposit an egg. 

  • To lie: to rest in a horizontal position on a surface. 

  • To apply; to put. 

  • To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk. 

  • To bet (that something is or is not the case). 

  • To point; to aim. 

  • To be in a horizontal position; to lie (from confusion with lie). 

  • To present or offer. 

  • To state; to allege. 

  • To impute; to charge; to allege. 

  • To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them. 

  • To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another. 

  • To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle). 

noun
  • The direction a rope is twisted. 

  • A casual sexual partner. 

  • A lake. 

  • A ballad or sung poem; a short poem or narrative, usually intended to be sung. 

  • What was I, just another lay you can toss aside as you go on to your next conquest? 

  • Arrangement or relationship; layout. 

  • An act of sexual intercourse. 

  • A share of the profits in a business. 

  • A lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance. 

  • The laying of eggs. 

adj
  • Non-professional; not being a member of an organized institution. 

  • Not trumps. 

  • Not belonging to the clergy, but associated with them. 

should

verb
  • Simple past tense of shall. 

  • Will be likely to (become or do something); indicates a degree of possibility or probability that the stated thing will happen or be true in the future. 

  • Indicates that something is expected to have happened or to be the case now. 

  • Used to express a conditional outcome. 

  • With verbs such as 'see' or 'hear', usually in the second person, used to point out something remarkable in either a good or bad way. 

  • To make a statement of what ought to be true, as opposed to reality. 

  • Used to impart a tentative, conjectural or polite nuance. 

  • Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation. 

  • In questions, asks what is correct, proper, desirable, etc. 

  • Used to issue an instruction (traditionally seen as carrying less force of authority than alternatives such as 'shall' or 'must'). 

  • Used to give advice or opinion that an action is, or would have been, beneficial or desirable. 

  • Used to form a variant of the present subjunctive, expressing a state or action that is hypothetical, potential, mandated, etc. 

noun
  • Something that ought to be the case as opposed to already being the case. 

How often have the words lay and should occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )