lay the groundwork
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Prepare something for future development or action
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Chuẩn bị cho sự phát triển hoặc hành động trong tương lai
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: establish a foundation
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The team laid the groundwork for the project by researching the market
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “lay the groundwork” mean?
Prepare something for future development or action Literally: establish a foundation
Is “lay the groundwork” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.