Possible Clues:

• Lay ___ (flop)
• Lay ___
• Words after crack or fry
• The white of ___ (recipe ingredient)
• Never the lay of the last minstrel
• Lay — (really fail)
• "__ today is better than a hen tomorrow": Franklin
• Lay ___ (bomb)
• Lay -- (fail miserably)
• What Horton hatched