From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbelaybe‧lay /bɪˈleɪ/ verb [intransitive, transitive] technical to make someone who is climbing a mountain etc safe by attaching a rope to them and to a rock→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
belay• There are good nuts here and it used to be traditional to belay at this point.• It is possible to belay here, but much better to continue.• It should be possible on subsequent ascents to belay on Aries.• But my inability to belay or take the lead soon became obvious.• Whilst belaying you can look across a sweeping valley covered by vineyards and broken up by lines of cyprus trees.Origin belay (1500-1600) Dutch beleggen 