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stave - What does it mean?

Definition of 'stave'

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • 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.
  • * Wordsworth
  • Let us chant a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.
  • (label) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
  • A staff or walking stick.
  • Verb

  • To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. Often with in .
  • to stave in a cask
  • * 1851 ,
  • 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.
  • * {{quote-book
  • |year=1914 |year_published=2009 |edition=HTML |editor= |author=Edgar Rice Burrows |title=The Mucker |chapter= citation |genre= |publisher=The Gutenberg Project |isbn= |page= |passage=…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. }}
  • To push, as with a staff. With off .
  • * South
  • The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.
  • To delay by force or craft; to drive away. Often with off .
  • to stave off the execution of a project
  • * Tennyson
  • And answered with such craft as women use, / Guilty or guilties, to stave off a chance / That breaks upon them perilously.
  • To burst in pieces by striking against something.
  • To walk or move rapidly.
  • To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
  • * Sandys
  • All the wine in the city has been staved .
  • To furnish with staves or rundles.
  • (Knolles)
  • 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

    * stave in * stave off

    Anagrams

    * English contranyms ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Verb

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  • Derived terms

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    References

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