Definition of "stave"

stave

/steɪv/

noun
plural staves
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; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.
  Quotations
  For the Cherubims ſpread foorth their wings ouer the place of the Arke, and the Cherubims couered the Arke and the ſtaues thereof, aboue.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Chronicles 5:8
2. One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
3. (poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
  Quotations
  Let us chaunt a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.
  1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave
4. (music) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
5. (poetry, rare) The initial consonant, consonant cluster, or vowel of a word which rhymes with another word with the same consonant or vowel in stave-rhyme.
  Quotations
  Ley, in his work on the Metrical Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1866, has taken too little notice of these frequently occurring alliteration staves; Lagarde communicated to me (8th Sept. 1846) his view of the stave-rhyme in the Book […]
  1874, Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, page 73
  [The] stave that binds the two halves of the line together the on-verse must be classified as D in spite of the f-stave . stave-rhyme (OED s.v. Stave sb.)
  1974, John Collins Pope, Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope, page 193
  ... consisting only of the two staves, folches . . fehta. […] Line 63 contains the two-stave rhyme, aerist ... asckim; the suggested reduplicative rhyme [...] is technically doubtful according to the standards we have […]
  1975, Studies in Medieval Culture, page 11
  This may seem sparse and incomplete, but is reminiscent of the Old Norse stave rhyme technique in which one avoided two alliterating staves in one dipod – which the poets of that time considered superfluous.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2005, Studia musicologica Norvegica
6. A sign, symbol or sigil, including rune or rune-like characters, used in Icelandic magic.
7. A staff or walking stick.
verb
third-person singular simple present staves, present participle staving, simple past staved or stove, past participle staved or stove or stoven
1. (transitive) To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
  Quotations
  vpon paine of death to bring it out and to ſtaue it
  1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip
2. (transitive, usually with 'in') To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.
  Quotations
  A great Sea constant runs here upon the Rocks, and before they got to Land their Boat was stav’d in Pieces […]
  1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎, London, page 12
  And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 7, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley
  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.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley
  […] 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.
  1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎, All-Story Cavalier Weekly
3. (transitive, with 'off') To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
  Quotations
  The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.
  1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727
4. (transitive, usually with 'off') To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
  Quotations
  Congress had authorized seeds to be granted to the farmers there to stave hunger, but President Cleveland vetoed the bill.
  2009, Brent Stransky, The Young Conservative's Field Guide‎, page 39
5. (intransitive, rare or archaic) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
  Quotations
  But Donald would not hear of that proposal at all, assuring the Prince that it was impossible for them to return to the land again, because the squall was against them, and that if they should steer for the rock the boat would undoubtedly stave to pieces and all of them behoved to be drowned, for there was no possibility of saving any one life amongst them upon such a dangerous rock, where the sea was dashing with the utmost violence.
  1746, Robert Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning‎, volume 1, page 164
6. (intransitive, old-fashioned or dialect) To walk or move rapidly.
  Quotations
  He turned and blundered out of the house, stumbling over a chair and trying a wrong door on the way, and went staving down the street as if afraid to look behind him.
  1845, The Century Magazine‎, volume 48, page 41
7. To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
  Quotations
  All the […] wine in the city hath been staved.
  1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett
8. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.

Definition of "stave"

stave

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