stay - to stop, arrest, forbear. To 'stay' an order means to hold it in abeyance, to refrain from enforcing it.
a stay - a stopping; the act of arresting a judicial proceeding by the order of the court. A stay is a suspension of the case or some designated proceedings within it.
Where the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance are seised of cases in which the same relief is sought, the same issue of interpretation is raised or the validity of the same act is called in question, the Court of First Instance may, after hearing the parties, stay the proceedings before it until such time as the Court of Justice shall have delivered judgment.
