stave

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

• enPR: stāv, IPA^(key): /steɪv/

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• Rhymes: -eɪv

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stave (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.

   Hyponym: pipestave

   Coordinate terms: hoop, head

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 5:8:

     For the Cherubims ſpread foorth their wings ouer the place of the Arke, and the Cherubims couered the Arke and the ſtaues thereof, aboue.

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.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave:

     Let us chaunt a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.

4. (music) The set of 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.
   • 1874, Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, page 73:

     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 […]

   • 1974, John Collins Pope, Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope, page 193:

     [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.)

   • 1975, Studies in Medieval Culture, page 11:

     ... 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 […]

   • 2005, Studia musicologica Norvegica:

     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)

6. A sign, symbol or sigil, including rune or rune-like characters, used in Icelandic magic.
7. A staff or walking stick.

stave (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. [from 1540s]
   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     vpon paine of death to bring it out and to ſtaue it

2. (transitive, usually with 'in') To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. [from 1590s]

   to stave in a cask

   • 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:

     A great Sea constant runs here upon the Rocks, and before they got to Land their Boat was stav’d in Pieces […]

   • 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, →OCLC:

     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 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎, All-Story Cavalier Weekly:

     […] 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.

3. (transitive, with 'off') To push, or keep off, as with a staff. [from 1620s]
   • 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, →OCLC:

     The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.

4. (transitive, usually with 'off') To delay by force or craft; to drive away.

   We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.

   • 2009, Brent Stransky, The Young Conservative's Field Guide‎, page 39:

     Congress had authorized seeds to be granted to the farmers there to stave hunger, but President Cleveland vetoed the bill.

5. (intransitive, rare or archaic) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
   • 1746, Robert Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning‎, volume 1, page 164:

     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 [fol. 284.] possibility of saving any one life amongst them upon such a dangerous rock, where the sea was dashing with the utmost violence.

6. (intransitive, old-fashioned or dialect) To walk or move rapidly.
   • 1845, The Century Magazine‎, volume 48, page 41:

     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.

7. To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
   • 1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC:

     All the […] wine in the city hath been staved.

8. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.

   to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run

• stave in
• stave off

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• Avest., Sveta, Vesta, evats, vates, vesta

• IPA^(key): [ˈstavɛ]

stave

1. vocative singular of stav

stave

1. Alternative form of staf

From Old Norse stafa.

stave (imperative stav, present tense staver, simple past and past participle stava or stavet, present participle stavende)

1. to spell (words)

• stavefeil
• stavekontroll
• stavemåte

• “stave” in The Bokmål Dictionary.