Stable

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈsteɪ.bÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -eɪbÉ™l

Middle English, from Old French estable, from Latin stabulum ("stall, stand")

or

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman; Old French estable, from Latin stabilis (itself from stare ("stand") + -abilis ("able"))

Full definition of stable

Noun

1. A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) animals with hoofs, especially horses.
   There were stalls for fourteen horses in the squire's stables.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
2. (metonymy) All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.

Verb

1. (transitive) to put or keep (horse) in a stable.
2. (rail transport, transitive) to park (a rail vehicle)

Derived terms

• (rail transport) outstable

Related terms

• stabled
• stabler
• stable-boy
• stable-hand

From Latin stabilis (itself from stare ("stand") + -abilis ("able"))

Adjective

1. Relatively unchanging, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.He was in a stable relationship.a stable government
• RogersIn this region of chance, ... where nothing is stable.

Anagrams

• ablest, ablets, bastle, bleats, tables