Australian and West African fern (Platycerium alcicorne) having the large fronds branched like a stag's
horns; also, any species of the same genus. — Stag-horn sumac (Bot.), a common American shrub
(Rhus typhina) having densely velvety branchlets. See Sumac. — Stag party, a party consisting of
men only. [Slang, U. S.] — Stag tick (Zoöl.), a parasitic dipterous insect of the family Hippoboscidæ,
which lives upon the stag and in usually wingless. The same species lives also upon the European
grouse, but in that case has wings.
Stag
(Stag), v. i. (Com.) To act as a "stag", or irregular dealer in stocks. [Cant]
Stag
(Stag), v. t. To watch; to dog, or keep track of. [Prov. Eng. or Slang] H. Kingsley.
Stage
(Stage) n. [OF. estage, F. étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L. stare to stand. See Stand,
and cf. Static.]
1. A floor or story of a house. [Obs.] Wyclif.
2. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented,
or the like.
3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
4. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
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.
Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage.
Pope.
Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.
C. Sprague. 6. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or carrer; the spot where
any remarkable affair occurs.
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this stage of fools.
Shak.
Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.
Miton. 7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope.
8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of
horses.
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.
A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road.
Jeffrey.
He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages.
Smiles. 10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result.
Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society.
Macaulay. 11. A large vehicle running from station to station for the accomodation of the public; a stagecoach; an
omnibus. "A parcel sent you by the stage." Cowper.
I went in the sixpenny stage.
Swift.
