Stay is basically defined as to continue to be at the same physical state or to spend more time in an existing location. An obvious example of stay would be for an infant to visit his or her grandparents for even a single week. An obvious example of stay would be to remain working at a certain business for years. However, there are other ways by which people use the term ‘stay’ to describe their current situation.
A couple that has been married for many years often describes their relationship as ‘married-for-life’. A couple where they have first met say that they met on Friday night and have been together ever since. In these cases, the stay may not necessarily have occurred in a physical location but was instead a mental one – they had developed a deep and enduring connection that could not easily be broken. In these cases, staying for just one more weekend is described in terms of a visit. When a couple stays away from one another for too long, it becomes clear that they are not staying together for the purpose of becoming permanently married but rather spending time apart.
A single male friend might describe his stay in New York as a vacation, or a stay-cation. A female friend might say that her stay in Australia is a gap year. The stay-cation description is often used to describe holiday stays where people return to the places they have visited before. Staying for an extended period does not necessarily make a person a stay-summer but it does make them temporarily single.