stave

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

stave (plural staves)

  1. One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc.
  2. One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
  3. (poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
  4. The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
  5. A staff or walking stick

Translations [edit]

narrow strip
bar
metrical portion; stanza; staff
parallel lines to write music on
walking stick
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Verb [edit]

stave (third-person singular simple present staves, present participle staving, simple past and past participle stove or staved)

  1. (transitive) To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. Often with in.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 22
      Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don’t stave the boats needlessly, ye harpooneers; good white cedar plank is raised full three per cent within the year.
    • 1914, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Mucker[1], edition HTML, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009:
      …for the jagged butt of the fallen mast was dashing against the ship's side with such vicious blows that it seemed but a matter of seconds ere it would stave a hole in her.
  2. (transitive) To push, as with a staff. With off.
  3. (transitive) To delay by force; to drive away. Often with off.
  4. (intransitive) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
  5. (intransitive) To walk or move rapidly.

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst
push, as with a staff
delay by force; to drive away
burst in pieces by striking against something

Anagrams [edit]

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