stave

      English

      Etymology

      Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

      Pronunciation

      Noun

      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

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

      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

      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

      Anagrams

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      Last modified on 19 June 2013, at 20:44