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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Staff \Staff\ (st[.a]f), noun; 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. st[ae]f 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}, noun]
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.
And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar to bear it withal. --Ex. xxxviii. 7.
With forks and staves the felon to pursue. --Dryden.
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.
The boy was the very staff of my age. --Shak.
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.
3. A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff.
Methought this staff, mine office badge in court, Was broke in twain. --Shak.
All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them. --Hayward.
4. A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
5. The round of a ladder. [R.]
I ascended at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves. --Dr. J. Campbell (E. Brown's Travels).
6. A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
Cowley found out that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being all too lyrical. --Dryden.
7. (Mus.) The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called {stave}.
8. (Mech.) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
9. (Surg.) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
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}.
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 ({C. 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.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stave \Stave\ (st[=a]v), noun [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.
2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.
3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero brave. --Wordsworth.
4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or printed; the staff[7]. [Obs.]
{Stave jointer}, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stave \Stave\, verb (used without an object) To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.
Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank. --Longfellow.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stave \Stave\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Staved} (st[=a]vd) or {Stove} (st[=o]v); p. pr. & vb. n. {Staving}.] [From {Stave}, n., or {Staff}, noun]
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.
2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off.
The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance. --South.
3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.
And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance That breaks upon them perilously. --Tennyson.
4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys.
5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles.
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.
{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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
stave
noun
1: (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written [syn: {staff}]
2: one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket [syn: {lag}]
3: a crosspiece between the legs of a chair [syn: {rung}, {round}]
verb
1: furnich with staves; "stave a ladder"
2: burst or force (a hole) into something [syn: {stave in}] [also: {stove}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
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