| 释义 |
▪ I. stave, n.1|steɪv|
[A back-formation from staves pl. of staff n.]
I. A stick of wood (and senses thence derived).
1. a. Each of the thin, narrow, shaped pieces of wood which, when placed together side by side and hooped, collectively form the side of a cask, tub or similar vessel. (Cf. staff n.1 14 f.)
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) 934 A tonne is an holowe vessel made of many bordes and tonne staues craftly bounde togyder. c1580in Eng. Hist. Rev. July (1914) 518 For..pipestaves and hoghed staves. 1613Sir R. Boyle in Lismore Papers (1886) I. 26 Butt staves and hogshead staves. 1687Petty Pol. Arith. (1690) 79 All sorts of Timber, Plank, and Staves for Cask. 1769E. Bancroft Nat. Hist. Guiana 85 This quality renders it suitable for staves for sugar hogsheads. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. i. i, One Citoyen has wrought out the scheme of a wooden cannon... It is to be made of staves, by the coopers. 1844H. Stephens Bk. of Farm III. 900 [The milking⁓pail] is made light, of thin oak staves bound with iron hoops. 1906T. Sinton Poetry of Badenoch 21 Presenting him with the milk-cog, she assured him that so long as a stave of it remained [etc.].
b. Phrases. to ding in staves: to break in pieces. to fall into staves: to fall to pieces. to take a stave out of one's cog (cf. cogue 1).
1786Burns Author's Cry ix, To see his poor, auld Mither's pot, Thus dung in staves. 1889H. Johnston Chron. Glenbuckie xvi. 179, I must either get my income augmented or take a ‘stave out of my cog’, as the saying is. 1895W. C. Fraser Whaups of Durley ii. 17 ‘A dune man’, the villagers said, ‘fa'in into staves’, and become quite unable to control a herd of boisterous children.
2. A rod, bar, pole or the like.
a. A rung (of a ladder); a cross-bar to the legs of a chair. Now dial. (Cf. staff n.1 14 a, b.)
c1175Twelfth Cent. Hom. (E.E.T.S.) 80 He bið ilic þam men þe..asithð..uppon þære læddrestæfæ..& wule þonne stiȝan ufor butan stafæ [= ælfric Saints' Lives I. 12 Be þære hlæddre stapum..buton stapum]. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Stave, a step or round of a ladder.
†b. A pump-rod. (Cf. staff n.1 9 b.) Obs.
1750T. R. Blanckley Naval Expos. 124 Stave or Spear (Pump Hand) is a long Rod of Iron with an Eye at the upper End, which Hooks to the Brake.
c. A bar or pin (of a trundle).
1834–6Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 102/1 The teeth of pinions are also distinguished by the term leaves, and those of the trundle by staves or rounds. Ibid. 102/2 The centre of the stave A..half the diameter of the stave. 1869Rankine Machinery & Millwork 137 When two wheels gear together, and one of them has cylindrical pins (called staves) for teeth. Ibid., Draw curves parallel to and within the epicycloids, at a distance from them equal to the radius of a stave.
d. (See quot.)
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 372 The laths [for plastering] generally used in London are made of fir, imported from Norway, the Baltic, and America, in pieces, called staves.
e. A graduated rod used in levelling. (Cf. staff n.1 10.)
1838Rep. 8th Meeting of Brit. Assoc. Notices 154 Description of an Improved Leveling Stave, for Subterranean as well as Surface Leveling. By Thomas Sopwith.
† f. U.S. ? A pig (of lead).
1864C. H. Hunt Life E. Livingston i. 7 [For land purchased from the Indians R. Livingston agreed] to pay to the said Owners these following Goods..; Six Guns, fifty pounds of Powder, Fifty staves of Lead [etc.].
g. The shaft of a lance: = staff n.1 3 a.
1873Dixon Two Queens III. xiii. viii. 43 Stave after stave was broken, but the unknown knights still challenged every one to ride his best.
h. = bowstaff. arch.
1891Doyle White Company xv, 'Tis the master-bowyer's rede:..Every stave well nocked. Every string well locked.
i. [Cf. Norw. stav.] A vertical wooden post forming part of the framework of a building, usu. a stave church (see sense 8 c below); also, a plank used in the walls of such a construction.
1915H. G. Leach Scandinavia of Scandinavians ii. xiii. 162 In architecture, the most distinctive survivals from the Middle Ages in Norway are the so-called ‘stave’ churches, tepee-like structures, built of wooden staves, rising roof above roof. Ibid., Stave churches often contain elaborate wooden carvings which have served as models for modern Norwegian decoration... This is especially true of the church of Urnaes.., one of the earliest existing stave structures, with its intricate animal and vegetable motives. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia IX. 539/1 The stone foundation of the stave church supports four horizontal wooden beams, from which rise four corner posts, or staves.
II. A bundle (of certain things).
3. A bundle of teasel-heads. = staff n.1 16.
1707Mortimer Husb. 147 The common Produce is about 160 Bundles or Staves upon an Acre, which they sell for about one Shilling a Stave. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 785 By some, before forming them into packs, they are done up into what are termed staves, by means of split sticks.
4. ? Anglo-Irish. (See quot.) rare—1.
1861O Curry Lect. MS. Materials 13 The next book..is that called Cin Droma Snechta... The word Cin..is explained in our ancient Glossaries as signifying a stave of five sheets of vellum. Ibid. 196 The workmen..carried off several loose leaves, and even whole staves of the book.
III. (Cf. staff n. II.)
5. a. A ‘verse’ or stanza of a poem, song, etc. = staff n.1 19 c.
1659J. C[aryl] Peter's Pattern (1680) 3 After they had sang the two first Staves of the Tenth Hymn of Larners Twelve Songs of Sion. 1709Hearne Collect. 24 Dec. (O.H.S.) II. 331 In most of the Churches..the 3 first Staves of the 64th Psalm were sung. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) IV. 233 That Posterity may bless us, should be one of the Staves of the Litany. 1784Cowper Task vi. 662 The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce, And eke did roar right merrily, two staves, Sung to the praise and glory of King George! 1805Scott Last Minstr. v. end, Last, o'er the warrior's closing grave, Rung the full choir in choral stave. 1823Byron Island ii. v, One long-cherish'd ballad's simple stave. 1841Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxix, ‘Cheer up, captain!’ cried Hugh, when they had roared themselves out of breath. ‘Another stave!’ 1858Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. lii. 285 Britannicus chanted a lyric stave on the sorrows of the discrowned and disinherited. 1875Lowell Spenser Prose Wks. 1890 IV. 305 note, Spenser's innovation lies..in valuing the stave more than any of the single verses that compose it.
b. Phrase. to tip (one) a stave: to sing a song to (one); jocularly, to send a line to. Cf. tip v.4 1.
1838Haliburton Clockm. Ser. ii. xxiii, Jist tip a stave to the Governor of Nova Scotia, order him to inquire out the author. 1886Stevenson Treas. Isl. ii. x, ‘Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave’, cried one voice.
6. Mus. A set of lines for musical notation: = staff n.1 20.
c1800Busby Dict. Mus. (1811). 1842,1873[see staff n.1 20]. 1875Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms.
7. a. quasi-arch. An alphabetic letter. (Cf. runestave and staff n.1 18.)
1866–7G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. Introd. p. x, Many staves are more or less the same in both [Runic and Roman]. 1896A. Austin Eng. Darling iv. i, Ask them that read the staves. This crimson-dawn, The beechen slips on the white cloth spelled out The runes of death.
b. An alliterating letter in a line of Old English verse. Also head-stave. Cf. G. stab, hauptstab.
1894H. Sweet Anglo-Saxon Reader (ed. 7) p. lxxxv, In our texts..the letters or staves are in italics. Ibid., We denote the first and second verse of each line by I and II respectively. II..has only one stave called the head-stave, while I has either one or two called under-staves. 1959R. B. Le Page in Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. LVIII. 434 The two alliterating staves, one in each half-line, have a definite structural function. 1962K. Malone Widsith 67 Grammatically fela ic monna makes a unit but because of the m-stave that binds the two halves of the line together the on-verse must be classified as D in spite of the f-stave.
IV.
8. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as stave-hole, stave teeth; stave-wise adv.; b. objective, as stave-cutting, stave-making; c. special comb.: stave bolt, a log for cutting into staves; stave church [tr. Norw. (Bokmål) stavkirke], a church built with walls of upright planks or staves, of a type mainly built in Norway from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; stave mill N. Amer., a mill making cask-staves; stave-rime [cf. G. stabreim], alliteration; an alliterating word in a line of alliterative poetry; staverow rare, an alphabet; stavesman, an official bearing a stave or wand; stave-tankard, an antique tankard formed of staves of wood (Cent. Dict. 1891); stave-wood, a name given to several trees furnishing wood suitable for cask-staves (see quots.).
1878Lumberman's Gaz. 26 Jan., Large quantities of *stave bolts are being hauled in.
1915, etc. *Stave church [see sense 2 i above.] 1933F. Lingstrom This is Norway facing p. 12 (caption) Borgund Stave Church in Laerdal. 1936A. W. Clapham Romanesque Archit. viii. 189 A highly remarkable class of building in timber, which includes the celebrated mast or stave⁓churches of Norway. 1968G. Jones Hist. Vikings ii. iii. 116 An oak-built stave church at some time destroyed by fire.
1840Mechanics' Mag. XXXIII. 497 Taylor's Improved *Stave-cutting Machine.
1901J. Black's Carp. & Builder, Scaffolding 34 The sides..in which the points for centre of *stave-holes [of a ladder] are shown. 1874Spons' Dict. Engin. viii. 2917 Stave-making and Cask Machinery.
1937R. Flannagan County Court 188 Widowed five years before by an automobile accident, she had held on to her late husband's chain of *stave-mills and had prospered. 1957Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 7 May 15/8 Blake and other stave mill operators say they will remain in business as long as it is profitable. 1968E. R. Buckler Ox Bells & Fireflies vi. 102 If there was urgent need of ready money..you worked off and on in the stave mill.
1888Academy 14 Jan. 27/1 The law of the alliterative verse does not require us to adopt the reading of the Dublin MS., as three *stave-rimes are a sufficient number for a line.
1866–7G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. Introd. p. x, These particular staves died out, and assumed other forms in the later Runic *staverow.
1786J. Smith in Mem. J. E. Smith (1832) I. 172 The area of the square [on election-day] was crowded with *stavesmen and spectators: the candidates rode as usual.
1834–6Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 103/2 Draw the line AB, joining the centres of the *stave teeth.
1659Torriano Dict. Ital. & Eng., A-fusóne, adv., made *stave-wise.
1778W. Wright in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. (1790) II. 76 Quassia Simaruba... This tree is known in Jamaica by the names of Mountain Damson, Bitter Damson and *Stave-wood. 1864Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Islands 788 Stave-wood, Simaruba amara. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. Austral. 542 Flindersia Schottiana..Stavewood. 1889Century Dict., Stavewood,..a tall stout tree, Sterculia fœtida, of the East Indies, eastern Africa, and Australia.
▪ II. † stave, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
[? For staven, var. of stam n.1]
? The stem of a ship.
13..Coer de L. 64 All it [a ship] was whyt of huel-bon, And every nayl with gold begrave: Off pure gold was the stave.
▪ III. stave, n.3 north.|steɪv|
[f. stave v.1]
1. A crushing blow, a heavy stroke.
1819[Rennie] St. Patrick I. xv. 220 Our bit curragh's no that rackle sin it got a stave..on the Partan-rock. 1867[J. P. Morris] T'Lebby Beck Dobby 5 (E.D.D.) T'roof fair rang again wi' sic like staves as thissan.
2. A sprain. Sc.
1900Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 May 1076/2 The so-called ‘stave of thumb,’ or Bennett's fracture.
▪ IV. stave, v.|steɪv|
Pa. tense and pple. staved; also (chiefly Naut.), 8–9 stove.
[f. stave n.1]
1. trans. To break up (a cask) into staves; to break into and let out the contents.
c1595Capt. Wyatt R. Dudley's Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.) 10 A bark..beinge forst to cast overborde all..theire fish and to stave theire caske in the whiche theire fresh water was. 1627Capt. Smith Sea Gram. ii. 9 They..staue the Caske to make more roome. 1679Lond. Gaz. No. 1433/4 Yesterday 7 Hogsheads of French wine..were publickly staved by the Officers of the Custom House. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 8 June, In an action at law, laid against a carman for having staved a cask of port. 1841Dickens Barn. Rudge lxvii, They..could see them..broaching the casks, staving the great vats,.. and lying down to drink at the channels of strong spirits.
b. To destroy (wine, etc.) by breaking up the cask.
1615G. Sandys Trav. i. (1621) 66 Diuers times all the wine in the Citie hath bene staued. 1633T. James Voy. 32, I made all the water in hold to be stau'd: and set some to the pumpes to pumpe it out. 1694Echard Plautus 168 He's a plaguy hard custom-master and staves all prohibited goods. 1733P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 139 That all seiz'd Brandies should be either staved or exported. 1758Ann. Reg., Chron. 85/1 They..stove all the beer in the cellar. 1768Ibid., Hist. Europe 33/1 Wine was forbid..; and all those who were possessed of any quantities of it were obliged to stave it. 1827Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 310 They had..staved all the liquor which they could not drink.
fig.1700Dryden Fables Pref. *A 2, If the Searchers find any [irreverent expressions, etc.] in the Cargo, let them be stav'd or forfeited, like Counterbanded Goods.
c. intr. Of a barrel: To fall to pieces. rare.
1797A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl (1813) III. 20 One fair day the old barrel staved, over her poor dear tipped, and broke his neck.
2. trans. To break a hole in (a boat); to break to pieces; also, to break (a hole in a boat). to stave in, to crush inwards, make a hole in.
1628Digby Voy. Mediterr. (Camden) 65 The man swimming well he saued himselfe with much difficultie, the boate being staued in many peeces. 1668Lond. Gaz. No. 324/1 The 17th instant was driven on shoar..a vessel..where by the violence of the winds and waves, she was staved to pieces. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 263 The first Thing we had to do, was to stave the Boat..and..leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim. 1748Anson's Voy. i. viii. 81 A sea..stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge. Ibid. iii. v. 334 The loss of our long-boat, which was staved against our poop,..put us to great inconveniences. a1779Cook Voy. Pacific (1784) I. ii. i. 174 The attempt could not be made..unless at the risk of having our boats..staved to pieces. 1819Byron Juan ii. xlviii, The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had Been stove in the beginning of the gale. 1823Scoresby Jrnl. 458 Our ship was driven against the corner of a floe, and her starboard-bow completely stove. 1834Marryat P. Simple xi, He was forced to place sentries in the chains with cold shot, to stave the boats if they came alongside. 1884Manch. Exam. 7 Oct. 5/1 The captain..ordered the boats to be lowered, but the sea stove in two of them. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 496 C...fetches up on a floating stump in the river, and staves a hole you could put your head in, in the bow of the said canoe.
b. intr. for refl. of a boat: To break up; hence trans. to break a hole in.
1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 147 Otherwise she must have stove to pieces, the Ground being very foul. 1794Morse Amer. Geog. 71 During the storm, one of the Indian canoes stove, and became unfit for service. 1820J. Oxley Jrnl. Exped. N.S. Wales 225 The large boat struck on a sharp rock, and with such violence as to stave her bottom. 1839Longfellow Hesperus xix, Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxvi. 264 The Hope stove her bottom.
3. transf. trans. To burst in, crush inwards. Chiefly with in.
1716Church Philip's War (1865) i. 24 There Philip had staved all his Drums, and conveyed all his Canoo's to the East-side of Metapoiset-River. 1753Scots Mag. Mar. 109/1 To break open and stave trunks and chests. 1822A. Clarke in Life x. (1834) 253, I found two of the maids..pushing..against the shutters, as the windows themselves had been stove in by the tempest. 1862Trollope Orley F. xxix, He had..broken his right arm, which had been twisted under him as the horse rolled, and two of his ribs had been staved in by the pommel of his saddle. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 327 The doors staved in, the wainscoating pulled down. 1879J. Long Virgil's æneid x. 557 He staves The face of Thoas with a rock—a mass Of bones and blood and brains outspattering.
4. To renew the staves of (a bucket); to put together the staves of (a cask, etc.).
1627Capt. Smith Sea Gram. viii. 36 The Cooper is..to staue or repaire the buckets. 1842Browning Pied Piper vii, A bulky sugar-puncheon, All ready staved.
5. To fit with a staff or handle.
1542in Rutland MSS. (1905) IV. 335 Item payd..for the mackyng off leyden malles for archers, the yerne warcke, the lede and casteng, with the staweng off them at [blank] the pece. 1611Florio, Alberáre,..to shaft or stave any weapon as a holberd.
6. To drive off or beat with a staff or stave; esp. in to stave off, to beat off (a dog in Bear- or Bull- baiting; also transf. a human combatant); to keep back (a crowd). Now only arch.
c1624Dekker etc. Witch Edmonton v. i, But you must play fair, you should be stav'd off else. 1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 4. 521 He is like an old bitten curre, that being fleshed to the game, will not be stav'd off. 1658Ussher Ann. 717 He went abroad with the rods..and staving the young gamsters when they had contended as long as he thought good, parted them. 1671tr. Frejus' Voy. Mauritania 73 Others, who with Clubs, and other weapons in their hands, staved off the Croud of People. 1820Scott Monast. xxxvii, ‘Stave the miller off him’, said Murray, ‘or he will worry him dead.’ 1878Tennyson Q. Mary i. iii, Stave off the crowd upon the Spaniard there.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1609B. Jonson Sil. Woman iii. i, For gods sake, let's goe staue her off him [i.e. Mistress Otter from Captain Otter, who are quarrelling]. 1611Beaum. & Fl. Tri. Time i, I..found him in a young Lords ear so busie..: I pulled him..; spoke unto him, His answer still was, By the Lord, sweet Lord,..Nothing could stave him off. 1627Sanderson Serm. ad Magistr. i. §25 (1632) 175 And as for Courage to execute justice..whether it be..that a faire word whistleth him off; or that a great mans letter staveth him off;..sure we are, the Magistrate too often letteth the wicked carry away the spoyle, without breaking a Iaw of him. 1647Trapp Comm. 1 Thess. iii. 6 God stints him [the devil], and staves him off, when he would worry his poor lambs. 1649Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Use Passions vi. iii. 467 Other Passions are in a perpetuall motion; and..they never fix themselves so strongly on an Object, but they may be staved off. 1884Tennyson Becket Prol., And this Becket, her father's friend, like enough staved us from her.
c. Phrase. to stave and tail: see tail v.1 2. Also transf. and fig.
1663[see tail v.1 2]. 1668R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 68 As they were Staving and Tayling, you might have had more Manners (cry'd one) than to give such Language to your Betters. a1697J. Aubrey Countrey Revell ii. iii. in Brief Lives (1898) II. 334 Yesterday we Cheshire gentlemen mett at a barrell of ale at the bull-ring where we sufficiently bayted both bull and barrell; and having well dranke there, staved and tayled. Ibid. 335 The Justice and I..parted em, and, with something more trouble then staving and tayling dog and bull. 1823Scott Quentin D. xxxiii, They seized him, pulled him down, and would probably soon have throttled him, had not the Duke called out—‘Stave and tail!—stave and tail!—Take them off him!’ 1829― Let. 30 Jan. in Croker Papers (1884) II. 31 Jamie then set to staving and tailing between his father and the philosopher, and..reduced the debate to more order.
d. (See quot.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., To stave off, to boom off; to push anything off with a pole.
7. fig. Chiefly to stave off.
†a. To keep (a person) away or at a distance; to repel. Obs.
1631F. Lenton Charact. C 8 b, Hee aspiers sometimes to his Masters daughter, but being stau'd off there, hee choppes vpon the Chambermaid, and there stickes fast. 1636Heylin Sabbath ii. vi. 185 To allure the people thither, being before staved off by a former Synod, it was provided that [etc.]. 1641F. Greville Disc. Nat. Episc. ii. vi. 88 Heresies distract our soules, dismember our Churches, stave off Iew and Gentile, who know not whether part to believe. 1667South 12 Serm. (1697) II. 60 The Condition of a Servant staves him off to a distance; but the Gospel speaks nothing but Allurement.
†b. To keep (a person) from (doing something); to divert from (an object, practice, or course of action). Obs.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 329 This makes them..to put themselves under the protection of the Spaniard, the feare of whose power staves off the Duke from attempting upon that State. 1636B. Jonson Discov., Nil gratius, How can they escape the contagion of the Writings, whom the virulency of the calumnies hath not stav'd off from reading? 1641Quarles Enchyridion iii. xvii. (Grosart) 31/2 Divert the course of the vulgar humor, by devulging..some..novelty, which may..stave their tongues from off thy worried name. Ibid. iii. xxviii. 32/2 If he be given to lavish Company, endeavour to stave him off with lawfull Recreations. 1646Gaule Cases Consc. 86 And there's no staving them off their owne conceited way of Tryall. 1651N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. vi. (1739) 27 It was the policy of these times..to carry a benign Aspect to the Pope, so far only as to stave him off from being an enemy. 1654Owen Doctr. Saints' Persev. xii. §59. 297 This dread and terrour [used] for the hedging up their wayes from folly, and staving them off from any Actuall evill. 1658Heylin Stumbling-block iii. §4. 81 Enough of conscience to have staved them from the prosecution, but that they had it in design, and resolved to carry it. 1668Owen Expos. 130th Ps. 111 What staves off these hungry creatures [sc. souls] from their proper food? 1684H. More Answer xiii. 95 By this sharp reproof they may be the more effectually staved off from committing Idolatry.
c. To put off as importune or inopportune; to treat with evasion.
1646J. Hall Horæ Vac. 4 Columbus..had beene stav'd off by severall Christian Princes, yet..He gained the assistance of the King and Queene of Castile. a1656Hales Gold. Rem. i. (1673) 43 God himself in the Book of Psalms, staves them off with a Quid tu ut enarres mea? etc. 1680N. Lee Cæsar Borgia iii. i, But speak, thou stav'st me off. 1723Waterland 2nd Vind. Christ's Divin. ii. 66 But it is high Time now to come to Antiquity; which has been so long staved off, and yet must make a great part of our Discourse. 1843A. Bethune Scott. Peasant's Fireside 79 The poor lad was staved off from time to time, wi' ae excuse after anither, till he grew impatient. 1887Haggard Jess xxxiv, This staved the fellows off for a while.
d. To ward off (something undesirable or hurtful); to prevent the occurrence or event of; to keep back, delay. Also (rarely), to stave away.
1662J. Wilson Cheats v. iii, Had you but mist me now, I should have ventur'd that, and perhaps stav'd, That misery, which alwayes follows rashness. 1664― A. Commenius ii. iii, 'Tis seal'd, and done: Nor shall the fate, or fortune of the Empire Stave it off longer. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 170 The Powder being given again, the fit is staved off. 1691d'Emiliane's Frauds Rom. Monks 397 They..earnestly entreated him, to make use of all his Credit with the Pope, to stave off this fatal Blow from them. 1759Ann. Reg. 6/2 New methods were devised, which might stave off the entire ruin of their finances. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. vi. iv, Insurrection will come; but likewise will it not be met? Staved off, one may hope, till Brunswick arrive? 1849W. Irving Goldsmith xxxii. 278 He had obtained an advance of money from Newbery to stave off some pressing debts. 1859Tennyson Geraint & Enid 352 But Enid..answer'd with such craft as women use, Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance That breaks upon them perilously. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xx. vii. IX. 140 One huge peril handsomely staved away, though so many others impend. 1879Dixon Windsor III. xxiii. 231 A little fish sufficed to stave off hunger. 1884Church Bacon vi. 129 The proposed conference was staved off by management for a day or two; but it could not be averted.
8. intr. To fight with staves.
1663Butler Hud. i. iii. 88 He..stav'd it out, Disdaining to lay down his arms.
9. trans. To drive with a heavy blow. U.S.
1837Knickerbocker Mag. Nov. X. 408 (Thornton Amer. Gloss.), [He had] stove two of his front teeth down his throat. 1837J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (Bartlett Dict. Amer.), I'll stave my fist right through you, and carry you on my elbow, as easily as if you were an empty market-basket.
10. intr. To go with a rush or dash; to ‘drive’. Sc. and U.S.
1819[Rennie] St. Patrick III. xi. 265 The puir lads..ha'e been a' night stavin' at ane anither, and struislin' i' the dark. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. xxiii. 303 ‘Hold in!’..cried out a long, slab-sided Virginian, as our adventurers went, staving through Broadway, in Mr. Ashley's go-cart. 1836Phila. Public Ledger 5 Oct. (Thornton Amer. Gloss.), He stove about in every direction, like a mad bull. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad ii, Other pedestrians went staving by us with vigorous strides. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped xxvi, If we seek to creep round..it's..there that they'll be looking to lay hands on us. But if we stave on straight to the auld Brig of Stirling, I'll lay my sword they let us pass unchallenged. 1894P. H. Hunter James Inwick iii. (1900) 37 He was staivin doon the street.
11. Forging. To thicken (bar-iron) by heating and hammering, to upset; also to stave up. Also absol.
b. intr. Of the iron: To undergo staving; also to stave up.
1906J. Watson Tables for Blacksm. & Forgers Pref., The information required is generally about allowances for staving and drawing down. Ibid. 9 To stave up out of a bar 6{pp} wide by 4{pp} thick a part 7{pp} wide by 4½{pp} thick by 9{pp} long. Ibid., So that 12{pp} long of 6{pp} wide by 4{pp} thick staves up to 9{pp} long of 7{pp} wide by 4½{pp} thick. Ibid. 15 A 4{pp} diameter bar is to have a length of 2{pp} at 5{pp} diameter staved on one end, and a part drawn down to 31/4{pp} diameter by 10{pp} long. Ibid. 23 A bar 11/4{pp} round is to be staved to 11/4{pp} square by 1½{pp} long: what length of 11/4{pp} round is required?
c. transf. (See quot.)
1850Ogilvie, Stave, v...6. To make firm by compression. The term is applied to the compressing of lead by a hammer or a blunt chisel, after it has been run in to secure a joining, such as the socket joints of pipes.
12. To sprain (one's thumb, etc.) Sc.
1887Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. 228/1 He steved his wrist and staved my thumb.
▪ V. stave
variant of steeve v. Naut. |