The phrase "as if to lay" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an action that seems intended to place something down or to suggest a purpose behind an action.
Example: "She paused, as if to lay her thoughts out clearly before the audience."
Alternatives: "as though to place" or "as if intending to set".
Spoelstra tried to talk to Wade during a timeout, approaching as if to lay a calming hand on his player's shoulder.
Morris created this adaptation of Purcell's one-hour opera in 1989, and, as if to lay down a challenge to himself, he took both leads: Dido, the Queen of Carthage, all goodness; and the local Sorceress, all wickedness.
When the queen embarked this month on the first of a series of Diamond Jubilee tours of Britain's provinces — not quite the distant outposts of empire of Victoria's day — she took with her the newly minted duchess as if to finally lay to rest Diana's ghost.
Blinding you, and muffling your ears from the rest of the world, the Ostrich Pillow was meant to be your portable nap in a bag, with holes for your head and mouth/nose, as well as your arms if you wanted to lay your head down on a table.
As if to give lie to Yeats's poem, Elmer flapped his wings right on Dawn's cue, and dove head first from his perch directly toward me.
The latter option could potentially open the door for a cameo or supporting turn by other younger heroes as well, if Warner wanted to lay the groundwork for a future Teen Titans project, or hypothetically even turn The Flash into more of a Titans team-up.
She also has a panting, baby doll expression, as if she is about to lay a finger on her pouty lip.
Six months ago, Jack Straw sounded as if he really meant to lay bare how an Israeli army sniper came to shoot an unarmed British former army officer in the back.
With Cameron seeming to impress voters with his response to the MPs' expenses scandal, it had looked as if Coulson had begun to lay the ground for a successful autumn campaign.
In fact, it rather feels as if it would quite like to lay itself directly on top of that which it is striving so hard to visualise, imaginatively, in order to judge for itself quite how well it might measure up.
In the first sequence it would seem as if the hens had been trained to lay their eggs right in the frying pan.
