Search Result for "stave": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written;
[syn: staff, stave]

2. one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket;
[syn: stave, lag]

3. a crosspiece between the legs of a chair;
[syn: rung, round, stave]


VERB (2)

1. furnish with staves;
- Example: "stave a ladder"

2. burst or force (a hole) into something;
[syn: stave, stave in]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Staff \Staff\ (st[.a]f), n.; pl. Staves (st[=a]vz or st[aum]vz; 277) or Staffs (st[.a]fs) in senses 1-9, Staffs in senses 10, 11. [AS. staef a staff; akin to LG. & D. staf, OFries. stef, G. stab, Icel. stafr, Sw. staf, Dan. stav, Goth. stabs element, rudiment, Skr. sth[=a]pay to cause to stand, to place. See Stand, and cf. Stab, Stave, n.] 1. A long piece of wood; a stick; the long handle of an instrument or weapon; a pole or stick, used for many purposes; as, a surveyor's staff; the staff of a spear or pike. [1913 Webster] And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar to bear it withal. --Ex. xxxviii. 7. [1913 Webster] With forks and staves the felon to pursue. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 2. A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds. "Hooked staves." --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster] The boy was the very staff of my age. --Shak. [1913 Webster] He spoke of it [beer] in "The Earnest Cry," and likewise in the "Scotch Drink," as one of the staffs of life which had been struck from the poor man's hand. --Prof. Wilson. [1913 Webster] 3. A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff. [1913 Webster] Methought this staff, mine office badge in court, Was broke in twain. --Shak. [1913 Webster] All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them. --Hayward. [1913 Webster] 4. A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed. [1913 Webster] 5. The round of a ladder. [R.] [1913 Webster] I ascended at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves. --Dr. J. Campbell (E. Brown's Travels). [1913 Webster] 6. A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave. [1913 Webster] Cowley found out that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being all too lyrical. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 7. (Mus.) The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called stave. [1913 Webster] 8. (Mech.) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch. [1913 Webster] 9. (Surg.) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder. [1913 Webster] 10. [From Staff, 3, a badge of office.] (Mil.) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution. See ['E]tat Major. [1913 Webster] 11. Hence: A body of assistants serving to carry into effect the plans of a superintendent or manager; sometimes used for the entire group of employees of an enterprise, excluding the top management; as, the staff of a newspaper. [1913 Webster +PJC] Jacob's staff (Surv.), a single straight rod or staff, pointed and iron-shod at the bottom, for penetrating the ground, and having a socket joint at the top, used, instead of a tripod, for supporting a compass. Staff angle (Arch.), a square rod of wood standing flush with the wall on each of its sides, at the external angles of plastering, to prevent their being damaged. The staff of life, bread. "Bread is the staff of life." --Swift. Staff tree (Bot.), any plant of the genus Celastrus, mostly climbing shrubs of the northern hemisphere. The American species (Celastrus scandens) is commonly called bittersweet. See 2d Bittersweet, 3 (b) . To set up one's staff, To put up one's staff, To set down one's staff or To put down one's staff, to take up one's residence; to lodge. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Stave \Stave\, v. i. To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments. [1913 Webster] Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Stave \Stave\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Staved (st[=a]vd) or Stove (st[=o]v); p. pr. & vb. n. Staving.] [From Stave, n., or Staff, n.] 1. To break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst; -- often with in; as, to stave a cask; to stave in a boat. [1913 Webster] 2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off. [1913 Webster] The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance. --South. [1913 Webster] 3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project. [1913 Webster] And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance That breaks upon them perilously. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask. [1913 Webster] All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys. [1913 Webster] 5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles. [1913 Webster] 6. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run. [1913 Webster] To stave and tail, in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to hold back the dog by the tail. --Nares. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Stave \Stave\ (st[=a]v), n. [From Staff, and corresponding to the pl. staves. See Staff.] 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; esp., one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc. [1913 Webster] 2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc. [1913 Webster] 3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff. [1913 Webster] Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero brave. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster] 4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or printed; the staff[7]. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Stave jointer, a machine for dressing the edges of staves. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

stave n 1: (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written [syn: staff, stave] 2: one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket [syn: stave, lag] 3: a crosspiece between the legs of a chair [syn: rung, round, stave] v 1: furnish with staves; "stave a ladder" 2: burst or force (a hole) into something [syn: stave, stave in]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

178 Moby Thesaurus words for "stave": Malacca cane, Spenserian stanza, advocate, alpenstock, antistrophe, arm, athletic supporter, back, backbone, backing, bandeau, bar, bar line, barrel, baton, beam, bearer, billet, board, boarding, book, bra, brace, bracer, bracket, brassiere, bucket, bullet, burden, buttress, cane, canto, carrier, cervix, chorus, clapboard, cord, cordwood, corset, couplet, crook, crosier, cross, cross-staff, crutch, crutch-stick, deal, degree, distich, doorstep, driftwood, envoi, epode, firewood, footrest, footstep, foundation garment, fulcrum, girdle, guy, guywire, handstaff, hardwood, haste, hasten, heptastich, hexastich, highball, hotfoot, hustle, jock, jockstrap, lath, lathing, lathwork, ledger line, line, lituus, log, lumber, mainstay, maintainer, mast, measure, monostich, neck, octastich, octave, octet, ottava rima, panelboard, paneling, panelwork, pastoral staff, paterissa, pentastich, plank, planking, plyboard, plywood, pole, post, prop, puncheon, quarterstaff, quatrain, refrain, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, rhyme royal, rigging, riser, round, rundle, rung, scale, septet, sestet, sextet, shake, sheathing, sheathing board, sheeting, shillelagh, shingle, shoulder, shroud, sideboard, siding, slab, slat, softwood, space, spine, splat, spoke, sprit, staff, stair, standing rigging, stanza, stay, step, step stool, stepping-stone, stick, stick of wood, stiffener, stovewood, strain, strengthener, string, strophe, support, supporter, sustainer, swagger stick, swanking stick, syllable, tercet, terza rima, tetrastich, three-by-four, timber, timbering, timberwork, tread, triplet, tristich, two-by-four, upholder, verse, walking stick, weatherboard, wood