stave
verbEtymology Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.
8 senses
- 1To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
- 2To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.
- 3To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
- 4To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
- 5To burst in pieces by striking against something.
- 6To walk or move rapidly.
- 7To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
- 8To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.
1
To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
- vpon paine of death to bring it out and to ſtaue it1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
2
Usually, With 'in' To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.
- to stave in a cask
- 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:
4 more examples
- 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, →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.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:
- A little to one side a cask was being staved for the troopers who had come with the Duke; and on all the noisy, moving scene and the flags that streamed from the roofs and windows, and the shifting crowd, poured the ruddy light of a great bon-feu that burned on the farther side of the way.1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter IV, in Shrewsbury:
- […]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 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:
3
With 'off' To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
- The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
4
Usually, With 'off' To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
- We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.
- 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:
- 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.1746, Robert Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning, volume 1, page 164:
- 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.
- 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, →OCLC:
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