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 guilties, 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.
Stave
(Stave), v. i. To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.
Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank.
Longfellow. Staves
(Staves) n.; pl. of Staff. "Banners, scarves and staves." R. Browning. Also pl. of Stave.
Stavesacre
(Staves"a`cre) n. [Corrupted from NL. staphis agria, Gr. dried grape + wild.] (Bot.) A kind
of larkspur and its seeds, which are violently purgative and emetic. They are used as a parasiticide, and
in the East for poisoning fish.
Stavewood
(Stave`wood`) n. (Bot.) A tall tree (Simaruba amara) growing in tropical America. It is one
of the trees which yields quassia.
Staving
(Stav"ing) n. A cassing or lining of staves; especially, one encircling a water wheel.
Staw
(Staw) v. i. [Cf. Dan. staae to stand, Sw. stå. &radic163.] To be fixed or set; to stay. [Prov.
Eng.]
Stay
(Stay) n. [AS. stæg, akin to D., G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. stag; cf. OF. estai, F. étai, of Teutonic origin.]
(Naut.) A large, strong rope, employed to support a mast, by being extended from the head of one mast
down to some other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft
stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship.
In stays, or Hove in stays (Naut.), in the act or situation of staying, or going about from one tack to
another. R. H. Dana, Jr. — Stay holes (Naut.), openings in the edge of a staysail through which the
hanks pass which join it to the stay. — Stay tackle (Naut.), a tackle attached to a stay and used for
hoisting or lowering heavy articles over the side. — To miss stays (Naut.), to fail in the attempt to go
about. Totten. — Triatic stay (Naut.), a rope secured at the ends to the heads of the foremast and
mainmast with thimbles spliced to its bight into which the stay tackles hook.
