stave
See also: šťávě
English
Etymology
Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.
Pronunciation
Noun
stave (plural staves)
- 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.
- One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
- (poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
- (Can we date this quote by Wordsworth and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Let us chant a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.
- (Can we date this quote by Wordsworth and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (music) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
- A staff or walking stick.
- A sign, symbol or sigil, including rune or rune-like characters, used in Icelandic magic.
Translations
narrow strip, a part of a vessel
|
bar
metrical portion; stanza; staff
|
parallel lines to write music on
|
walking stick
Verb
stave (third-person singular simple present staves, present participle staving, simple past and past participle stove or staved)
- (transitive) To fit or furnish with staves or rundles. [from 1540s]
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knolles to this entry?)
- (transitive) To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. Often with in. [from 1590s]
- to stave in a cask
- 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 12,[1]
- A great Sea constant runs here upon the Rocks, and before they got to Land their Boat was stav’d in Pieces […]
- 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[2], HTML edition, 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.
- (transitive) To push, or keep off, as with a staff. With off. [from 1620s]
- (Can we date this quote by South and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.
- (Can we date this quote by South and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (transitive) To delay by force or craft; to drive away. Often with off.
- to stave off the execution of a project
- (Can we date this quote by Tennyson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- And answered with such craft as women use, / Guilty or guilties, to stave off a chance / That breaks upon them perilously.
- (intransitive) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 7:
- And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.
- (intransitive) To walk or move rapidly.
- To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
- (Can we date this quote by Sandys and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- All the wine in the city has been staved.
- (Can we date this quote by Sandys and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.
- to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run
Derived terms
Translations
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
Further reading
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
Czech
Pronunciation
Noun
stave
Middle English
Noun
stave
- Alternative form of staf
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
Verb
stave (imperative stav, present tense staver, simple past and past participle stava or stavet, present participle stavende)
- to spell (words)
Derived terms
References
- “stave” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
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