noun. One who is not a cleric.

noun. One who is a nonprofessional in a given field.

noun. An unprofessional man; a man belonging to the laity or general mass of people, as distinguished from members of the professions of divinity, law, and medicine; specifically, one who does not belong to the clerical profession; more particularly, a church-member who is not a clergyman: also sometimes applied to persons with reference to any other profession or occupation in which they are not expert.

noun. Same as lay-figure, 1.

noun. One of the people, in distinction from the clergy; one of the laity; sometimes, a man not belonging to some particular profession, in distinction from those who do.

noun. A lay figure. See under Lay, n. (above).

noun. layperson, someone who is not an ordained cleric or member of the clergy

noun. by analogy, someone who is not a professional in a given field

noun. a common person

noun. a person who is untrained or lacks knowledge of a subject

noun. a generally ignorant person

noun. lay-sister or lay-brother, person received into a convent of monks, following the vows, but not being member of the order

noun. someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person

"Probably took hand in more constitutional questions than anybody in history, and you'll find his decisions always had what I call layman's language in part of them, so they'd understand it."