3. The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a principal commodity or production of a country or
district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples of the United States.
We should now say, Cotton is the great staple, that is, the established merchandize, of Manchester.
Trench. 4. The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
5. Unmanufactured material; raw material.
6. The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
7. A loop of iron, or a bar or wire, bent and formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a
hook, pin, or the like.
8. (Mining) (a) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels. (b) A small
pit.
9. A district granted to an abbey. [Obs.] Camden.
Staple
(Sta"ple), a.
1. Pertaining to, or being market of staple for, commodities; as, a staple town. [R.]
2. Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled; as, a staple trade. Dryden.
3. Fit to be sold; marketable. [R.] Swift.
4. Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
Wool, the great staple commodity of England.
Hom. Staple
(Sta"ple), v. t. [imp. & p. p. stapled ; p. pr. & vb. n. stapling.] To sort according to its staple; as,
to staple cotton.
Stapler
(Sta"pler) n.
1. A dealer in staple goods.
2. One employed to assort wool according to its staple.
Star
(Star) n. [OE. sterre, AS. steorra; akin to OFries. stera, OS. sterro, D. ster, OHG. sterno, sterro,
G. stern, Icel. stjarna, Sw. stjerna, Dan. stierne, Goth. staírno, Armor. & Corn. steren, L. stella,
Gr. 'asth`r, 'a`stron, Skr. star; perhaps from a root meaning, to scatter, Skr. st&rsdot, L. sternere
and originally applied to the stars as being strewn over the sky, or as being scatterers or spreaders of
light. &radic296. Cf. Aster, Asteroid, Constellation, Disaster, Stellar.]
1. One of the innumerable luminous bodies seen in the heavens; any heavenly body other than the sun,
moon, comets, and nebulæ.
His eyen twinkled in his head aright,
As do the stars in the frosty night.
Chaucer. The stars are distinguished as planets, and fixed stars. See Planet, Fixed stars under Fixed, and
Magnitude of a star under Magnitude.
2. The polestar; the north star. Shak.
