stale

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /steɪl/, X-SAMPA: /steIl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain.

Adjective

stale (comparative staler, superlative stalest)

1. Having lost its freshness from age; (of food) still edible, but hard or unpleasant from age.

   The steak is as stale as the beer.

   If you don't enter a room for some days, the air will become stale.

2. No longer new; no longer interesting; established; old.

   stale news

   a stale joke

Antonyms

• fresh

Translations

having lost its freshness

• Albanian: bajat (sq)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陳腐 (cmn), 陈腐 (cmn) (chénfǔ)

• Dutch: taai (nl) (bread), ranzig (nl) (butter, fat), vervuild (nl) (water), muf (nl) (air), onfris (nl) (especially clothes)...
• Esperanto: malfreŝa (eo)
• Finnish: väljähtänyt (fi), ummehtunut (fi)
• French: rassis (fr) (bread), rance (fr) (butter, oil, fat), croupi (fr) (water), vicié (fr) (air), défraîchi (fr) (especially clothes)...
• German: abgestanden (de), schal (de)

• Greek: μπαγιάτικος (el) (bagiátikos), στάσιμος (el) (stasimos, for liquids)
• Italian: stantio (it) (of food)
• Japanese: 古い (ja) (ふるい, furui)
• Jèrriais: raccourchi, mouaîsi
• Portuguese: parado (pt) (air)
• Russian: несвежий (ru) (n'esv'éžij), чёрствый (ru) (čórstvyj) (bread), затхлый (ru) (zátχlyj)
• Spanish: duro (es) (bread), revenido (es), pasado (es) (food), viciado (es) (air)
• Telugu: పాచిన (te) (paachina), వాడిన (te) (vaaDina), వడలిన (te) (vaDalina)
• Turkish: bayat (tr)

no longer new or interesting

• Albanian: bajat (sq)
• Dutch: ouderwets (nl)
• Finnish: väljähtänyt (fi), tympeä (fi), kulunut (fi)
• French: vieilli (fr) m, périmé (fr) m, caduc (fr) m, suranné (fr) m
• German: veraltet (de), abgedroschen (de) (joke)
• Japanese: 陳腐な (ja) (ちんぷな, chinpu-na)

• Russian: избитый (ru) (izbítyj), банальный (ru) (banálnyj), (informal, about joke or news) бородатый (ru) (borodátyj)
• Spanish: manido (es), anquilosado (es)
• Swedish: passé (sv)
• Turkish: bayat (tr)

Related terms

• stalemate

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (intransitive) To lose its freshness; to become stale.

   Some baked goods stale very quickly.

2. (transitive) To make vapid or tasteless; to destroy the life, beauty, or use of; to wear out.
   • Shakespeare

     Age can not wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.

Derived terms

• antistaling

Etymology 2

Apparently from Anglo-Norman estale (“pigeon used to entice a hawk”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (obsolete) A bird used as a decoy to trap other birds.
2. (obsolete) Any trap or lure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

     Still as he went, he craftie stales did lay / With cunning traines him to entrap vnwares.

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 4 scene 1

     (Prospero, to Ariel)

     This was well done, my bird.

     Thy shape invisible retain thou still:

     The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither

     For stale to catch these thieves.

3. (obsolete) A low class of prostitute (originally used as a decoy by other criminals).
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     I stand dishonor'd, that have gone about / To link my dear friend to a common stale [...].

Etymology 3

From Old French estal (from French étal), from Frankish *stal, from Proto-Germanic *stallo-, earlier *staþlo-. Ultimately related to stand.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (obsolete) A person's position, especially in a battle-line.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     for ony stowre that ever ye see us bestadde, stondys in your stale and sterte ye no ferther.

2. (obsolete) An ambush.
3. (obsolete) A division of armed men posted in a specific place, either for an ambush or for other reasons.
4. a handle of a broom or rake

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain.

Noun

stale (uncountable)

1. Urine, especially of horses or cattle.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I.48:

     Those of Crotta being hardly besieged by Metellus, were reduced to so hard a pinch, and strait necessitie of all manner of other beverage, that they were forced to drinke the stale or urine of their horses.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. To urinate (of livestock, especially horses)
   • cir. 1920, Aleister Crowley in "Leigh Sublime", a poem about Leigh Hirsig:

     You stale like a mare

     And fart as you stale;

Anagrams

• astel, lates, least, leats, salet, setal, slate, steal, stela, taels, tales, teals, tesla

---

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈstalɛ/

• audio

  (file)

Adverb

stale

1. constantly, continually

Related terms

• stały