lay down arms


lay down (one's) arms

1. Literally, to lay down or otherwise relinquish one's weapon in the context of a military engagement. We have you surrounded! Instruct your troops to lay down their arms!
2. To stop pursuing military engagement, as part of a truce, treaty, or surrender; to stop combat. We're hoping that the various militant factions in the region will begin laying down their arms if the peace treaty is accepted.
3. By extension, to cease fighting, arguing, or being hostile. We're asking employees to lay down their arms while we investigate this issue. I think we should all just lay down our arms and try to have a calm, rational conversation about this.
See also: arm, down, lay

lay down one's arms

Fig. to put one's gun, sword, club, etc., down; to stop fighting; to surrender. The prisoners were instructed to lay down their arms. The soldiers laid down their arms and surrendered.
See also: arm, down, lay
References in periodicals archive ?
Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, talking to journalists in Islamabad, said if Taliban did not lay down arms the government would take strict action.
At the time, the PKK did not lay down arms, but many of its militants returned to Kandil, where many speculate they are newly training to fight if the peace talks collapse.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Guwahati on Wednesday, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi disclosed that DHD-J, has expressed its willingness to lay down arms and hold dialogue with the government.
"In an unprecedented move, a least 2,000 militants have contacted their families and announced their readiness to lay down arms and join the peace plan in Aleppo city," militants' relatives and family members said.
If the PKK is so strongly determined not to lay down arms and return home, it is not wrong to say that the chief dreamer has been Eucalan, since 1999.
OSMANIYE, Nov 2, 2010 (TUR) -- Turkey's president has called on the terrorist organization PKK to lay down arms.
District Police Officer Bannu Iqbal Marwat has directed rest of militants and criminals to lay down arms and work for betterment of the country.
Hussain, while announcing the establishment of the regulation, urges the TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad to fulfill his part of the peace deal by asking the Taliban to lay down arms to establish peace in the region.
The rationale is that in order for Syria to once again be a peaceful and united country, as it was prior to 2011 when Western provocations triggered the current crisis, there needn't be any Nuremberg style trials for the terrorists - and prisoners - who continue to lay down arms and return to civilian life.
Imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan previously called on members of the organisation to lay down arms and leave the country.
Talking to local newsmen here at Fizza Ghat, the Information Minister whose lone son was assassinated by the Taliban militants in July last year, said he was ready to pardon the blood of his son Mian Raashid Hussain if the rebels laid down arms and give up militancy.I invite them to lay down arms and ready to forgive blood of my son, he explained.
Upon the PKK terrorist organization's call to lay down arms, Gonul said that the relevant authorities had already been dealing with the issue.
Mangal Bagh had warned security personnel a few days ago to lay down arms or face dire consequences.
Lahore, May 3 (ANI): Putting aside all appeals to lay down arms to establish peace in the Swat Valley, the Taliban's Swat chapter spokesperson Muslim Khan has termed arms and ammunitions as 'ornaments' for Muslims.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Syrian government troops spread leaflets calling on militants in al-Qaboun district Northeast of neighborhood of the country's capital of Damascus, to lay down arms and receive amnesty, preventing, thus, bloodshed, a source familiar with the situation said.