[syn: raw material, staple]
4. a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables;
5. paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire that can fasten papers together;
VERB (1)
1. secure or fasten with a staple or staples;
- Example: "staple the papers together"
ADJECTIVE (1)
1. necessary or important, especially regarding food or commodities;
- Example: "wheat is a staple crop"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Staple \Sta"ple\ (st[=a]"p'l), n. [AS. stapul, stapol, stapel, a
step, a prop, post, table, fr. stapan to step, go, raise;
akin to D. stapel a pile, stocks, emporium, G. stapela heap,
mart, stake, staffel step of a ladder, Sw. stapel, Dan.
stabel, and E. step; cf. OF. estaple a mart, F. ['e]tape. See
Step.]
1. A settled mart; an emporium; a city or town to which
merchants brought commodities for sale or exportation in
bulk; a place for wholesale traffic.
[1913 Webster]
The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having
been the staple of the Indian trade. --Arbuthnot.
[1913 Webster]
For the increase of trade and the encouragement of
the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was
minded to erect the town into a staple for wool.
--Sir W.
Scott.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In England, formerly, the king's staple was established
in certain ports or towns, and certain goods could not
be exported without being first brought to these places
to be rated and charged with the duty payable to the
king or the public. The principal commodities on which
customs were levied were wool, skins, and leather; and
these were originally the staple commodities.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence: Place of supply; source; fountain head.
[1913 Webster]
Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news.
Whenever there was a rumor that any thing important
had happened or was about to happen, people hastened
thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain
head. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
3. The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a
principal commodity or production of a country or
district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples
of the United States.
[1913 Webster]
We should now say, Cotton is the great staple, that
is, the established merchandise, of Manchester.
--Trench.
[1913 Webster]
4. The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
[1913 Webster]
5. Unmanufactured material; raw material.
[1913 Webster]
6. The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse
staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
[1913 Webster]
7. A loop of metal such as iron, or a bar or wire, bent and
formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a
hook, pin, or the like.
[1913 Webster]
8. Specifically: A small loop of metal such as steel, bent
into a U-shape with the points sharpened, used to fasten
sheets of paper together by driving the staple[8] through
the stacked sheets and into a formed receptacle which
curls the ends in and backward, thus holding the papers
firmly together; also, a similar, slightly larger such
fastener which may be driven into wood to fasten objects
to a wooden backing.
[1913 Webster]
9. (Mining)
(a) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one,
joining different levels.
(b) A small pit.
[1913 Webster]
10. A district granted to an abbey. [Obs.] --Camden.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Staple \Sta"ple\, a.
1. Pertaining to, or being a market or staple for,
commodities; as, a staple town. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
2. Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled;
as, a staple trade. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
3. Fit to be sold; marketable. [R.] --Swift.
[1913 Webster]
4. Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities;
belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
[1913 Webster]
Wool, the great staple commodity of England.
--Hallam.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
staple \sta"ple\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. stapled (-p'ld); p. pr.
& vb. n. stapling.]
1. To sort according to its staple; as, to staple cotton.
[1913 Webster]
2. To fasten together with a staple[9] or staples; as, to
staple a check to a letter.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
staple
adj 1: necessary or important, especially regarding food or
commodities; "wheat is a staple crop"
n 1: (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is
constant [syn: basic, staple]
2: a natural fiber (raw cotton, wool, hemp, flax) that can be
twisted to form yarn; "staple fibers vary widely in length"
[syn: staple, staple fiber, staple fibre]
3: material suitable for manufacture or use or finishing [syn:
raw material, staple]
4: a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables
5: paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire
that can fasten papers together
v 1: secure or fasten with a staple or staples; "staple the
papers together" [ant: unstaple]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
161 Moby Thesaurus words for "staple":
anchored, article, article of commerce, article of merchandise,
articulate, auto show, basic, basics, batten, batten down, bazaar,
boat show, body, bolt, bonanza, buckle, bulk, butt, button,
catalog goods, chief, clasp, cleat, clip, commercial complex,
commodities, commodity, consumer goods, consumer items,
conventional, core, cornucopia, corpus, critical, customary,
dovetail, drug, effects, elementary, emporium, essential,
essentials, exposition, eye, fair, fastened, feature, fixed,
flea fair, flea market, font, fount, fountain, fundamental,
fundamentals, gold mine, goods, goods for sale, habitual, hasp,
hinge, hitch, hook, indispensable, inventory, item, jam, job lot,
joint, latch, lead item, leader, line, line of goods, lock, lode,
loss leader, mail-order goods, main, market, market overt,
marketplace, mart, mass, material resources, materials, materiel,
merchandise, mine, miter, mortise, nail, necessary, necessities,
normal, open market, ordinary, peg, pin, plaza, prevailing,
primary, principal, product, quarry, rabbet, raw material,
required, requisite, resource, rialto, ring, rivet, riveted, scarf,
screw, seconds, set, settled, sew, shopping center, shopping mall,
shopping plaza, show, sideline, skewer, snap, source,
source of supply, special, spring, standard, standard article,
staple item, staples, stated, stick, stitch, stock, stock-in-trade,
store, street market, stuff, substance, substances, supply, tack,
toggle, trade fair, universal, usual, vein, vendible, vendibles,
vital, ware, wares, wedge, well, wellspring, zipper
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
STAPLE
A programming language written at Manchester
(University?) and used at ICL in the early 1970s for writing
the test suites. STAPLE was based on Algol 68 and had a
very advanced optimising compiler.
(2003-02-28)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
Staple
St Andrews Applicative Persistent Language.
Language combining functional programming with persistent
storage, developed at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Tony Davie, .
(2007-03-22)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
STAPLE, intern. law. The right of staple as exercised by a people upon
foreign merchants, is defined to be, that they may not allow them to set
their merchandises and wares to sale but in a certain place.
2. This practice is not in use in the United States. 1 Chit. Com. Law,
103; 4 Inst. 238; Malone, Lex Mere. 237; Bac. Ab. Execution, B 1. Vide
Statute Staple.