stake
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”).
Cognate with Scots stak, staik, Saterland Frisian Stak, West Frisian staak, Dutch staak, Low German Stake, Norwegian stake, Spanish estaca.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]stake (plural stakes)

- A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.
- We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.
- 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- A sharpened stake strong Dryas found.
- (croquet) A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
- A stick or similar object (e.g., steel channel or angle stock) inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off; often connected in a grid forming a stakebody.
- (with definite article) The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned.
- Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 106:
- However, the word "witch" came to be applied almost exclusively to women who [...] were usually old and ugly, and for this reason many unfortunate old ladies, whose only crimes were loneliness and a lack of beauty, went to the stake.
- That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
- A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
- (Mormonism) A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
- 1910, Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge:
- Every city, or stake, including a chief town and surrounding towns, has its president, with two counselors; and this president has a high council of chosen men.
Synonyms
[edit]- (croquet): peg
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]pointed long and slender piece of wood etc.
|
croquet: finishing stick
|
upright stick to prevent goods falling off a cart
timber to which a martyr was affixed to be burned
|
wager or pledge
|
Mormonism: territorial division
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Verb
[edit]stake (third-person singular simple present stakes, present participle staking, simple past and past participle staked)
- (transitive) To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.
- to stake vines or plants
- (transitive) To pierce or wound with a stake.
- 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner:
- You see, I'd made a bargain with him to buy the horse for a hundred and twenty—a swinging price, but I always liked the horse. And what does he do but go and stake him—fly at a hedge with stakes in it, atop of a bank with a ditch before it.
- 2014, A. J. Gallant, Dracula: Hearts of Stone:
- “You ladies happen to notice what happened to this vampire? This just happened. Did you see who staked him?”
- (transitive) To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
- 1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. Spring. The First Pastoral, or Damon. […]”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 725:
- I'll ſtake my Lamb that near the Fountain plays, / And from the Brink his dancing Shade ſurveys.
- (transitive) To provide (another) with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.
- John went broke, so to keep him playing, Jill had to stake him.
- His family staked him $10,000 to get his business started.
- (cryptocurrencies) To deposit and risk a considerable amount of cryptocurrency in order to participate in the proof of stake process of verification.
- 2019, Elad Elrom, “Blockchain Basics”, in The Blockchain Developer […] , Apress, →ISBN, page 23:
- Any peer can participate in the mining process by staking coins in order to validate a new transaction. To become a miner, there are two options; you can stake your coins to be used by a trustworthy node […] , or you can submit a full node to be selected as a miner.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to fasten, support, or defend with stakes
to pierce or wound with a stake
to put at hazard upon the issue of competition
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Further reading
[edit]- Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “stake”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
[edit]Dutch
[edit]Verb
[edit]stake
- (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of steken
- (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of staken
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Old English staca, from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô.
Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]stake (plural stakes)
- A stake; wood put in the ground as a marker or support.
- A fencepost; a stake used in concert to form a barrier.
- A branch or bough; an extension of a tree.
- A stave or stick; a cut (and often shaped) piece of wood.
- (rare) A prickle or splint.
- (rare) A metal bar or pole.
- (rare) A stabbing feeling.
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “stāke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-12-02.
Etymology 2
[edit]Verb
[edit]stake
- alternative form of staken
Swedish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old Swedish staki, from Old Norse staki, from Proto-Germanic *stakô, from Proto-Indo-European *steg-.
Noun
[edit]stake c
- synonym of ljusstake (“candlestick; candelabrum”)
- (colloquial, vulgar) a hard-on (penile erection)
- 1996, Björn Rosenström, “Ragnar”, in Låtar som är sådär [Songs that are so-so][1]:
- Ni har hört låten om Lennart, men ni har inte hört den om hans bror. Han heter Ragnar. Tillverkar vagnar. Han bor i Flen, men han har ett problem. Ragnar är översexuell, -sexuell. Han är kåt som ett djur. Han får sitta i bur. Han vill våldta och antasta allt som han ser, och när han har gjort det så ber han om mer. Stackars Ragnar kastreras ska, men det är nog lika bra. Ni förstår, hans rekord ingen slår. Han har haft stake i femton år.
- You've heard the song about Lennart, but you haven't heard the one about his brother. His name is Ragnar. Makes wagons. He lives in Flen, but he has a problem. Ragnar is oversexed, -sexed. He's horny as an animal. He has to sit in a cage. He wants to rape and molest everything that he sees, and when he's done so, he asks for more. Poor Ragnar is going to be castrated, but that's probably just as well. You see, no one beats his record. He's had a hard-on for fifteen years.
- (slang, uncountable) balls; courage, assertiveness
Declension
[edit]nominative | genitive | ||
---|---|---|---|
singular | indefinite | stake | stakes |
definite | staken | stakens | |
plural | indefinite | stakar | stakars |
definite | stakarna | stakarnas |
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- stake in Svensk ordbok (SO)
- stake in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
- stake in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
- Fula Ordboken
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)teg- (pole)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/eɪk
- Rhymes:English/eɪk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Croquet
- en:Mormonism
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Cryptocurrency
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- Middle English verbs
- enm:Woods
- Swedish terms derived from Old Swedish
- Swedish terms derived from Old Norse
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- Swedish colloquialisms
- Swedish vulgarities
- Swedish terms with quotations
- Swedish slang
- Swedish uncountable nouns