stage
Noun · VerbWordNet 3.0
Noun (8)
- any distinct time period in a sequence of events“we are in a transitional stage in which many former ideas must be revised or rejected”Synonyms: phase
- a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process“a remarkable degree of frankness”“at what stage are the social sciences?”Synonyms: degreelevelpoint
- a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by an audience“he clambered up onto the stage and got the actors to help him into the box”
- the theater as a profession (usually `the stage')“an early movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the contemporary stage”
- a large coach-and-four formerly used to carry passengers and mail on regular routes between towns“we went out of town together by stage about ten or twelve miles”Synonyms: stagecoach
- a section or portion of a journey or course“then we embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise”Synonyms: leg
- any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing something“All the world's a stage — Shakespeare”“it set the stage for peaceful negotiations”
- a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examinationSynonyms: microscope stage
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
1.A floor or story of a house. [Obs.] --Wyclif. [1913 Webster]
2.An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like. [1913 Webster]
3.A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging. [1913 Webster]
4.A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf. [1913 Webster]
5.The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited. [1913 Webster]
Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage.— Pope.[1913 Webster]
Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.— C. Sprague.[1913 Webster]
6.A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or career; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs; as, politicians must live their lives on the public stage. [1913 Webster +PJC]
When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.— Shak.[1913 Webster]
Music and ethereal mirth Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.— Miton.[1913 Webster]
7.The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope. [1913 Webster]
8.A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses. [1913 Webster]
9.A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of ten miles. [1913 Webster]
A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road.— Jeffrey.[1913 Webster]
He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages.— Smiles.[1913 Webster]
10.A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result. [1913 Webster]
Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society.— Macaulay.[1913 Webster]
11.A large vehicle running from station to station for the accommodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus. "A parcel sent you by the stage." --Cowper. [Obsolescent] [1913 Webster]
I went in the sixpenny stage.— Swift.[1913 Webster]
12.(Biol.) One of several marked phases or periods in the development and growth of many animals and plants; as, the larval stage; pupa stage; zoea stage. [1913 Webster]
Stage box, a box close to the stage in a theater.
Stage carriage, a stagecoach.
Stage door, the actors' and workmen's entrance to a theater.
Stage lights, the lights by which the stage in a theater is illuminated.
Stage micrometer, a graduated device applied to the stage of a microscope for measuring the size of an object.
Stage wagon, a wagon which runs between two places for conveying passengers or goods.
Stage whisper, a loud whisper, as by an actor in a theater, supposed, for dramatic effect, to be unheard by one or more of his fellow actors, yet audible to the audience; an aside. [1913 Webster]