Stave
Pronunciation
- enPR: stÄv, IPA: /steɪv/
- Rhymes: -eɪv
Origin
Back-formation from {{3}}, the plural of staff.
Full definition of stave
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.
- WordsworthLet us chant a passing stave
In honour of that hero brave. - The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
- A staff or walking stick.
Verb
- (transitive) To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. Often with in.to stave in a cask
- 1851, Herman Melville, ,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 Chapter , …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, as with a staff. With off.
- SouthThe condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.
- (transitive) To delay by force or craft; to drive away. Often with off.to stave off the execution of a project
- TennysonAnd 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.
- (intransitive) To walk or move rapidly.
- To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
- SandysAll the wine in the city has been staved.
- To furnish with staves or rundles.
- 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