| 释义 |
▪ I. stage, n.|steɪdʒ|
Also 6 north. stayge, Sc. staige; pl. stagies.
[ad. OF. estage masc. (mod.F. étage) = Pr. estatge (also estatga fem.), It. staggio station, dwelling (obs.), support for a net, side of a ladder, etc.:—popular L. *staticum, f. L. stāre to stand (OF. ester, Prov. estar). From the etymological meaning standing, station, standing place, were developed in OF. many special senses, which passed into ME.; the only senses that have survived into mod.Fr. are ‘story of a building’ (= 1 a) and certain fig. applications of this. Mod.F. stage, the ‘terms’ to be kept before admission to certain professions, is ad. med.L. stagium, ad. OF. estage. In OF. estage was taken as the etymological equivalent of L. stadium, and used to render that word as denoting an ancient measure of distance (hence sense 7 below). Branch IV represents an English development of meaning, which seems to have begun about 1600, and for which it is not easy precisely to account. It may in some degree have been influenced by the notion of an etymological connexion of the word with L. stadium; at any rate this notion is distinctly traceable in the medical use 11 b.]
I. Standing-place; something to stand upon.
1. Each of the portions into which the height of a structure is divided; a horizontal partition.
a. A story or floor of a building.
a1300Cursor M. 1679 It [the ark] sal be made wit stages sere, Ilkon to serue o þair mistere. Ibid. 1691 In þe ouer⁓mast stage þi self sal be. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4579 He..dide hym make a merueyllous tour... Selcouþe stages ar þer-ynne. 1382Wyclif Acts xx. 9 He ledd by sleep fel down fro the thridde stage [Vulg. de tertio cenaculo]. c1440York Myst. viii. 127 Dyuerse stages must þer be [in the ark]. c1477Caxton Jason 101 b, The ladyes and Damoyselles mounted & wente vpon the hyghe stages of the palays. 1513Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 47 And ilke fair cite, Stude payntit, euery fyall, fane, and stage, Apon the plane grund, by thar awin vmbrage. 1828Duppa Trav. Italy, etc. 88 The Temple appears to have been divided into three stories or stages. 1870F. R. Wilson Ch. Lindisf. 65 The lowest stage of a tower raised for the benefit of sea⁓farers. 1884W. Armstrong tr. G. Perrot & C. Chipiez' Hist. Art Chaldea & Assyria I. iv. 386 Nothing but the first two stages..now remain at Nimroud of..the chief temple of Calah.
†b. hall of stage: an upper chamber. Obs.
1485in Descr. Cal. Anc. Deeds (1890) I. 358 A mancion with a hall of stage. 1493Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 44 [The apostles] wente in to the cyte of Jerusalem and there they were in an halle of stage.
c. Arch. (See quot. 1836.)
a1400–50Wars Alex. 4897 Þe windows on þe selfe wyse [of gold]..And þai ware coruen full clene & clustrid with gemmes, Stiȝt stafful of stanes stagis & othire. c1450St. Cuthbert 4146 Þe preste, graped felgyld vysage, As he saide, thurgh a wyndowe stage. c1450Robin Hood & the Monk xxxix. in Child Ballads III. 98/2 Litul John stode at a wyndow in þe mornyng, And lokid forþ at a stage. 1817Rickman Styles Archit. 94 These [buttresses] differ very little from those of the last style, except that triangular heads to the stages are much less used. 1836Parker Gloss. Archit. (1850) I. 443 Stage,..the term is particularly applied to the spaces or divisions between the set-offs of buttresses in Gothic architecture, and to the horizontal divisions of windows which are intersected by transoms. 1891Freeman Sk. Fr. Travel 268 A single corner buttress, finished with an oddly corbelled stage.
†d. A ‘bank’ or tier of rowers. Obs. rare—1.
1382Wyclif Isa. xxxiii. 21 Ne the grete ship of thre stagis [L. trieris] shal not ouergon it.
†e. One of a series of levels rising stepwise one above the other; a step. Obs.
a1500Assembly of Ladies 477 And there I saw..A chayre set... And fyve stages it was set fro the ground. 1533Bellenden Livy i. xv. (S.T.S.) I. 85 The ymage..was sett..risand on certane stagis [L. in gradibus ipsis] towart þe left hand of þe counsel houss.
† f. A shelf or one of a series of shelves or horizontal divisions in a cupboard, etc.
1465,1472Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 243, 245 Item j armoriolum cum sex stagys [1465 is doubtfully read stagerum] duplicatis [= lined] pro cartis et munimentis conservandis. a1505in Kingsford Chron. Lond. (1905) 250 A cup⁓bourde of 6 stages height..garnysshed wt gilt plate. 1540Test Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 94 One gret arke with a stayge in the middle thereof. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 96 A Cupperd of xii stages, all set with greate mightie plate al of golde. 1551in Rep. Comm. Publ. Rec. Irel. (1815) 38 note, That [in the said Library] Presses or Stages..and all other necessaries shall be provided [for the Records and Muniments]. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. 139 The stages whereon they deposit the bodies of their dead.
g. A tier of shelves or platform for plants, esp. in a greenhouse; hence, a display of flowers on such a stage.
1802M. Edgeworth Dun Wks. 1848 IV. 412 He sat down upon the corner of a stage of flowers [in Covent Garden]. 1824Loudon Encycl. Gardening §6166 In the interior of the green-house the principal object demanding attention is the stage, or platform for the plants. 1850Glenny Handbk. Flower Garden 8 A stage of these flowers is a beautiful sight. 1881F. Young Ev. Man his own Mech. §930 The simple stage [for flower-pots] of three, four, or more straight shelves rising one above another is easily made.
h. One of a series of layers or shelves of any material.
1837P. Keith Bot. Lex. 212 If you take a parcel of oranges, and place upon your table a first stage of six,..and over that a second stage, and over that a third stage. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 981 Another method of working coal of uncommon thickness, is by scaffoldings or stages of coals. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xii. 151 Waterfalls bounding from one rocky stage to another.
i. Geol. (a) (Variously used: see quots. 1881, 1910.) In mod. use, a division of a stratigraphic series, composed of a number of zones and corresponding to an age in time; the rocks deposited during any particular age. [tr. F. étage (introduced in this sense by A. d'Orbigny 1841, in Paléont. Française: Terrains Crétacés I. 417).]
1859Darwin Orig. Species ix. 308 M. Barrande has lately added another and lower stage to the Silurian system, abounding with new and peculiar species. 1881Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XXXVIII. Proc. 3 The conclusions arrived at [by the International Commission for the Unification of Geological Nomenclature, 1880] were..that the term Group should be applied to the largest geological division of rocks,..Series to the third in order of magnitude, Stage to the fourth. 1898[see group n. 4 b (iii)]. 1910Geikie Geol. in Encycl. Brit. XI. 668/1 Two or more sets of beds or assises similarly related form a group or stage; a number of groups or stages make a series. 1915C. Schuchert Text-bk. Geol. II. xxx. 582 The epochs and series are further divided into ages (time) and stages (rocks), but these divisions have as yet no scientific precision. 1931[see series 11 a (ii)]. 1960J. M. Weller Stratigr. Princ. & Pract. 443 Biostratigraphic zones are combined to form larger units termed stages. 1966D. T. Donovan Stratigraphy vii. 160 Thus we speak of Ordovician System or Ordovician Period, Albian Stage or Albian Age, according to whether we are referring to the rocks themselves or the time occupied by their accumulation. 1976H. D. Hedberg Internat. Stratigraphic Guide vii. 71 Currently recognized stages are variable in time span, but on the average they range from 3 to 10 million years as indicated by isotopic age determinations.
(b) A glacial or interglacial period.
1895Jrnl. Geol. III. 247 These [flood-loams] cannot always be separated from the similar deposits of later glacial stages which must obviously have been deposited over the same tracts. 1939A. K. Lobeck Geomorphology ix. 314 The following names have been given to the several stages of glaciation [in America]: Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoian, Iowan, and Wisconsin... The world may now be in an interglacial period, to be followed by another glacial stage. 1969R. V. Ruhe Quaternary Landscapes in Iowa ii. 26 Four of the major units of the standard glacial and interglacial stages were established in Iowa.
j. U.S. A level (of water).
1814Brackenridge Views Louisiana 43 There is a surprising difference in the navigation of this..river, in the ordinary stages of water and during..the floods. 1846J. C. Fremont Narr. Explor. Exped. Rocky Mts. 56 Even at its low stages, this river cannot be crossed at random. 1890Times 14 Mar. 5/1 The Government officials report..that the stage of the Mississippi river from Cairo to Vicksburg..will be one of the highest known.
†2. Station, position, seat, esp. with reference to relative height; each of a number of positions or stations one above the other. Obs.
1340Ayenb. 122 And al alsuo ase ine heuene heþ þri stages of uolke ase zayt saynt denys huer-of þe on is heȝere þe oþer men þe þridde loȝest. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 122 In whiche ther were moo ymages Of golde stondynge in sondry stages. 1390Gower Conf. III. 109 The Mones cercle so lowe is, Wherof the Sonne out of his stage Ne seth him noght with full visage. 1423Jas. I Kingis Quair lxxix, Me thoght I sawe..martris and confessouris, Ech in his stage. Ibid. lxxxiii, A voce..said..Ȝonder thou seis the hiest stage and gree Off agit folk. 1451J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. v. xx. 1151 Ye may haue wurship, ye may be sette in stage Ryght as a goddesse. 1509Barclay Ship of Fools (1874) II. 262 Yet at the table another vse we se Whiche..ought nat vsed be That folys at the borde haue oft the hyest stage. 1513Douglas æneis x. xii. 20 Bot he, lyke to a ferm rouk,..dois hym self defend,..Remanand onremovyt ferm in his stage. 1536Primer Engl. & Lat. (Rouen) 80 The father..In this worlde gyues them wages, And a place in y⊇ heuenly stages, In the kyngdome of excellence. 1625Bacon Ess., Viciss. Things (Arb.) 573 The Changes and Vicissitude in Warres are many: But chiefly in three Things; In the Seats or Stages of the Warre [etc.].
†3.
a. A degree or step in the ‘ladder’ of virtue, honour, etc.; a ‘step’ on Fortune's wheel. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 25973 Thrifald aght þis soruing be, for it es sett in stages thre Bitter,..bitterer,..alþer-bitterest. c1360Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxiii. 704 In to heuene vs up liftyng Þorwh vertus, stage vp stage. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxv. 18 Vp-on my [Dame Fortune's] staigis or that thow ascend, Trest weill thy truble neir is at ane end. 1513Douglas æneis x. v. 152 Bot Turnus hardy, stalwart, hie curage, For all this feyr demynist nevyr a stage. 1559Mirr. Mag., Warwick i, Among the heauy heape of happy knyghtes, Whom Fortune stalde vpon her stayles stage [etc.]. 1622–34Peacham Compl. Gentl. x. (1906) 78 From the highest Stage of Honour, to the lowest staire of disgrace.
†b. A grade in rank. Obs. rare—1.
1801G. Rose Diaries (1860) I. 348 He had thought it advisable to delay..to recommend any stage in the peerage to Lord Nelson.
4. A raised floor, platform, scaffold.
a. A floor raised above the level of the ground for the exhibition of something to be viewed by spectators. Now rare or Obs. Cf. 5 a.
13..K. Alis. 5569 (Laud MS.), And þer hij founden..two grete ymages In þe Cee stonden on brasen stages. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xi. 42 Ymiddez of þe temple es a stage of xxiiii. grecez hie. 1536–7Rec. St. Mary at Hill 373 Item, paid to Wolston ffor makyng of y⊇ stages ffor y⊇ prophettes vj d. 1553Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 30 They founde certayne lowe cotages made of trees, lyke vnto stagies. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 389 Giue order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 297 Athelstan, Edwin, and Etheldred were crowned kings upon an open stage in the market place. 1710Steele Tatler No. 240 ⁋8, I have seen the whole front of a Mountebank's stage..faced with patents, certificates, medals, and Great Seals.
†b. A scaffold for execution or exposure in the pillory. Obs.
c1400Brut 240 He was draw and hongede on a stage made in mydes þe forsaide Sir Hughes galwes. 1586Verses of Praise of Joy, Kyd's Wks. (1901) 341 For chaire of state, a stage of shame, and crows for crownes they haue. 1760H. Walpole Let. G. Montagu 6 May (1857) III. 303 Lord Ferrers..was executed yesterday... There was a new contrivance for sinking the stage under him. 1781Cowper Hope 556 Leuconomus..Stood pilloried on infamy's high stage.
†c. fig. to bring to, keep on the stage: cf. stage v. 4. Sc. Obs.
1681in J. H. Thomson Cloud of Witnesses (1871) 127, I..being sentenced to die..thought fit to set down..the causes wherefore I suffer... I have never gotten the certainty of what hath brought me to the stage. 1725in Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 116 This staging process is made use of against any of the ministry..when..there is a Fama Clamoza against any person..and as the Kirk may be moved thereunto, he may be kept on the stage a year or more longer.
†d. Applied to a pulpit. Obs. rare—1.
1483Wardr. Acc. in Grose Antiq. Repert. (1807) I. 34 The stage otherwise called the pulpitt in Westminster.
e. A scaffold for workmen and their tools, materials, etc.; also (after sense 1) each of the levels of scaffolding.
c1440Promp. Parv. 471/2 Stage, or stondynge vp on (v.r. stage to stond on), fala, machinalis, machinis. 1535in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 453 Item to..carpenters..and laborers for syttyng vp the stage xxiijs ijd. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 524 Our Men who were at Work on her Bottom, with Stages. 1739C. Labelye Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge 18 Ballast was stow'd to make the Engine and its floating Stage as steady as possible. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast viii. 18 The outside is painted by lowering stages over the side by ropes. 1878F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 341 The gigantic travelling scaffold..made in 3 divisions, so that each part of either stage could be moved separately. 1906Westm. Gaz. 4 Sept. 5/1 Two Blondin stages..have been erected to transport blocks of concrete.
f. An erection at a fishing station consisting of a platform and other apparatus for drying fish.
1535in Weaver Wells Wills (1890) 132 Wm Yonge..ij stagis of fysshinge with iiij netts to them belongynge. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 35 Those which have had stages and make fishing voyages into those parts. 1698Act 10 Will. III, c. 14 §1 [With] Liberty to goe on Shore on any part of Newfoundland..to cut downe Wood and Trees there for building..Stages Shiprooms [etc.]. 1733P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 218 The Cod and Ling..might be dried on our Beeches and Stages. 1820Scoresby Acc. Arctic Regions II. 175 Two men..then carried it [blubber] piece by piece to a stage or platform erected by the side of the works, where a man, denominated a ‘stage cutter’..sliced it into pieces. 189919th Cent. Aug. 236 Stages being used simply for the drying of cod-fish.
g. A platform used as a gangway, landing place, support or stand for materials, etc.
1773Cook's 1st Voy. III. iii. vii. 589 The bank so steep..that a ship may lie..so near the shore as to reach it with a stage. 1793Act 33 Geo III, c. 96 §81 To be..unloaded without a Stage being laid upon the Gunwale of such..Vessel to the Bank of the said Canal. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 234 Stage, 1. A platform upon which trams stand. 2. The pit bank. 1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 131 Stage, a wooden platform a few inches high used for building stacks of paper or printed work on. 1969F. Mowat Boat who wouldn't Float iii. 24 We emerged at the base of a spindly and unbelievably rickety stage (as fishermen's wharves are called) made of peeled spruce poles.
h. A raised plate, ledge, or shelf to support an object, slide, etc. in a microscope or other instrument.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XI. 711/2 The magnifier..may be easily made to traverse over any part of the object that lies on the stage or plate B. 1849Noad Electricity 60 To the knob of a large jar A..screw a small metallic stage C, on which place a small jar B. 1875Huxley & Martin Pract. Biol. (1879) 23 Place on the hot stage, and gradually warm up to 50° C. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 535 By means of a double changing stage, working vertically, any framed slides..can be shown.
i. A boxing ring. Now Hist.
1829P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 44 He was carried upon the shoulders of several men, from the stage to a private room in the Stand. 1954F. C. Avis Boxing Ref. Dict. 106 Stage, the old name for the ring. 1982S. B. Flexner Listening to America 105 Broughton's rules called for a ‘stage’ with a one-yard square chalked or scratched in the middle.
j. Canad. An erection on which meat is kept out of the reach of animals, or on which meat is dried.
1715J. Knight Let. 30 June in Lett. from Hudson Bay (1965) 51 Wee were all forcd to leave the factory & to take our Selves to ye Woods & to gett on trees & Stages for Six Days. 1800A. Henry Jrnl. 9 Sept. in E. Coues New Light on Greater Northwest (1897) I. iii. 91 We then arranged camp..and made a suitable stage near by, to hold fresh meat, etc. 1922Beaver Mar. 39/2 Passing a considerable amount of jerked meat on a stage, I entered the wigwam. 1940F. Niven Mine Inheritance 45 The erection of stages, platforms raised high on poles above the prairies on which food could be left beyond the reach of leaping wolves.
5. a. The platform in a theatre upon which spectacles, plays, etc. are exhibited; esp. a raised platform with its scenery and other apparatus upon which a theatrical performance takes place.
to take the stage (Theatr.): of an actor, to walk with dignity across the stage after concluding an impressive speech. to hold the stage: see hold v. 6 g; to set the stage: see set v. 74.
1551R. Robynson tr. More's Utopia i. (1895) 98 Whyles a commodye of Plautus is playinge,..yf yowe shoulde sodenlye come vpon the stage in a philosophers apparrell. 1553Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 16 The Romaynes..were wont to put them [Rhinoceros and Elephants] together vpon the theater or stage for a spectacle. 1567R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (1906) 19 Pythagoras said, that this world was like a stage Whereon many play their parts. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xvii. (Arb.) 51 When Tragidies came vp they deuised to present them upon scaffoldes or stages of timber. 1593Shakes. Rich II, v. ii. 24. 1623 B. Jonson in Shaks. Wks. A 4, To heare thy Buskin tread, And shake a Stage. 1632Milton L'Allegro 131 Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonsons learned Sock be on. 1774Goldsm. Retal. 101 On the stage, he was natural, simple, affecting; 'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting. 1858[H. Aïdé] Rita I. x. 229 And having done what this virtuous woman considered to be her duty, she ‘took the stage’, as actors say, and swept to the further end of the room, with an air that said [etc.]. 1867D. Cook Nts. at the Play (1883) I. 7 Miss Fanny Kemble used to rush from the back of the stage to the proscenium, as though driving the apparition before her. 1905Grand Mag. Oct. 463 What we call ‘taking the stage’ on a heroic line is certain to induce a burst of applause;..but if one takes but one step too far down the stage..the applause will not be forthcoming.
b. In generalized use, e.g. to go on the stage, i.e. to take up the profession of an actor. Hence (chiefly with the), the theatre, the acted drama, the dramatic profession.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xi. (Arb.) 41 There were also Poets that wrote onely for the stage, I meane playes and interludes. 1623B. Jonson in Shaks. Wks. A 4 b, Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage, Or influence, chide, or cheere the drooping Stage. 1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) Ded. 3 Shakespear, who created the Stage among us. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 109 Bays, form'd by nature Stage and Town to bless, And act, and be, a Coxcomb with success. Ibid. iii. 142 And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn. 1781Cowper Retirem. 685 Books..in which the stage gives vice a blow. 1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. On Artific. Comedy, The artificial Comedy, or Comedy of manners, is quite extinct on our stage. 1849Thackeray Pendennis iv, The stage had its traditional jewels as the Crown and all great families have. 1886A. Sergeant No Saint I. xii. 229 If he had gone on the stage he would have made a good actor.
c. to bring (a person) on or to the stage: to present (him) as a character in a play; to represent dramatically. to bring, put (an opera, a tragedy, etc.) on the stage: to produce (it) in public.
1601B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv, I heare, you'll bring mee o' the Stage there; you'll play mee, they say: I shall bee presented by a sorte of Copper-lac't Scoundrels of you. 1602Dekker Satirom. C 2, They sweare they'll bring your life and death vpon'th stage like a Bricklayer in a play. Ibid. I 3 b, What could I doe, out of a iust reuenge, But bring them to the Stage? 1721Lond. Gaz. No. 6015/1 A new Opera..will be brought upon the publick Stage here. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 74 A dramatist would scarcely venture to bring on the stage a grave prince, in the decline of life, ready to sacrifice his crown [etc.].
†d. The scene in which a play is set or the locality in which its events were supposed to have occurred. Obs. rare.
1639Drummond of Hawthornden Conv. betw. B. J. & W. D. Wks. (1711) 224 [Ben Jonson] had also a design to write a Fisher or pastoral play, and make the stage of it in the Lomond lake.
e. fig.
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. v. 14–16 Ye haue a parte to playe in the stage of the whole world. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 191, I do take publike [schools] to be simply the better: as being more vpon the stage, where faultes be more seene. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 139 All the world's a stage, And all the men and women, meerely Players. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 72 We are now to present you upon the Asiatique stage, various scaenes compos'd of a miscelany of subjects. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 38 A plain Field near the Sea, which is said to be the Stage on which St. George duell'd and kill'd the Dragon. 1780Cowper Progr. Error 23 Plac'd for his trial on this bustling stage. 1823Scott Quentin D. i, Actions for which his happier native country afforded no free stage. 1861Bright Sp., Amer. 4 Dec. (1876) 88 There is no greater object of ambition on the political stage on which men are permitted to move. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxx. 186 The stage on which this scene was enacted was the Greyfriars' Churchyard.
f. stage left (or stage right): (on) the left (or right) side of a stage (as considered from a position facing the audience). Similarly, stage centre. Also fig.
1947Gloss. Techn. Theatr. Terms (Strand Electr. & Engin. Co.) 28 Stage left, that half of the stage on the actor's left when facing the audience. 1961Bowman & Ball Theatre Lang. 351 Stage right,..right stage, or right of stage. 1972F. Warner Lying Figures iii. 16 Epigyne..sits stage left in hanging basket chair. 1977‘C. Aird’ Parting Breath vi. 79 The Devil always enters stage left. 1979Internat. Jrnl. Sociol. of Law Feb. 26 There are three things that are very evident already: one is that he brought to a 20th century anthropological stage-center classic legal problems that preoccupied Maine in the 19th century.
† II. 6. A period of time; a fixed or appointed date. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 7339 Þat þai wit-in a tuel-moth stage, War put vte o þair heritage. Ibid. 21609. a 1325 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1878) 143 Afterward a gret stage In his visage it was ysene. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 164 Isaac wille not grante, to oblige him to þe, No to..ȝeld at terme & stage rent mykelle no lite. Ibid. 324. a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxxii. 641 Glotenye deseyueþ hym in luytel stage. c1400Ywaine & Gaw. 1068 Bot i have a wele rinand page, Wil stirt thider right in a stage. Ibid. 2501. c 1500 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 419 As they that gan approchen to the stage Off decrepitus.
† III. 7. = stadium 1. Obs. rare.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xvi. (Magdalene) 815 A cawe..þat twelfe stage was fra þe place,..& ilke stage,..Is of a myle þe auchtand parte. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 2725 One hundreth and fyftye stagys That Citie wes of lenth. Ibid. 2731 The wallis..Four hundreth stageis and four score In circuit.
IV. Division of a journey or process.
8. a. A place in which rest is taken on a journey; a roadside inn for the accomodation of travellers riding post or by stage-coach; esp. a regular stopping place on a stage-coach route where horses are changed and travellers taken up and set down. More recently, as fare stage, one of the principal stops on an omnibus or tram route, which marks the start of a new step in the fare structure: see fare n.1 9.
1603in Rep. Secret Comm. Post-Office App. (1844) 38 That the postemasters of every stage be aided..with fresh and able horses. Ibid. 39 Nor [to] ride them [sc. horses] further then the next immediate stage without changing, without the knowledge and consent of the Post of the stage. 1623Massinger Dk. Milan iv. ii, He, that at euerie stage keeps liuerie Mistresses. 1635in Rep. Secret Comm. Post-Office App. (1844) 56 The sd Portmantle is to goe from Stage to Stage, night and day, till it shall come to Edenburgh. 1687Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 172 We..came to rest..at the place which we had made our first Stage, when we came from Suez. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. xv. 12 The Road we now must alter, and engage Th' unwilling Horse to pass his usual Stage. 1815Scott Guy M. xlv, About three pounds of cold roast mutton which he had discussed at his mid-day stage. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 273 He discovered that there was no other stage available without over-riding Osmund.
b. transf. and fig.
1770Luckombe Hist. Printing 132 If any desire to know the motions and stages of the press, which printed these books; know, it was first set up at Moulsey,..thence conveyed to Fawsley, [etc.]. 1825Scott Betrothed xxv, A small level plain, forming a sort of stage, or resting-place, between two very rough paths. 1851T. T. Lynch Lett. to Scattered (1872) 143 Our Sundays are resting stages in the journey of life.
9. a. As much of a journey as is performed without stopping for rest, a change of horses, etc.; each of the several portions into which a road is divided for coaching or posting purposes; the distance travelled between two places of rest on a road.
1603R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 162 They returne back againe towards the south (where they continue all the winter) by 10 miles a stage. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. i. 48 Like your Post-horses when they haue runne their stage. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 2 Our whole Stage this day was about five hours. 1792F. Burney Diary 5 Oct., Bradfield Hall..was but one stage of nineteen miles distant. 1828Scott Tapestr. Chamb. (init.), In the conclusion of a morning stage, he found himself in the vicinity of a small country town. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. vi. 183 Horses at each post-house..ready waiting, so that no time might be lost between stages. 1896Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xiii, Leaving Poore and the patrol..to follow on by slow stages. 1898J. B. Crozier My Inner Life i. 6 We proceeded leisurely and by easy stages. 1907Verney Mem. I. 465 He..had ridden a stage with Sir Henry on his journey back to Paris.
b. transf.
1660Boyle New Exp. Phys.-Mech. xvii. 109 We were quickly hindred from accurately marking the Stages made by the Mercury in its descent, because it soon sunk below the top of the Receiver. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 10 A Wood-Louse..has a swift motion and runs by starts or stages. 1687Norris Misc. 71, I cannot like the Sun Each day the self same stage, and still unwearied, run. 1860Eng. & For. Mining Gloss., S. Staff. terms, Stage, a particular distance that a horse travels along the gate-road and where candles are regularly placed.
c. Short for stage-coach. Also ‘U.S. an omnibus’ (Cent. Dict.).
1671in Wood's Life (O.H.S.) II. 221 The Stage begins Munday next. 1747B. Hoadly Suspicious Husb. i. iii, It looks better than being drag'd to Town in the Stage. 1781Cowper Convers. 305 'Tis like a parcel sent you by the stage. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xli, The London lamps flashed joyfully as the stage rolled into Piccadilly. 1853‘Mark Twain’ Let. 26 Oct. (1917) I. 28 The Phila. 'bus drivers cannot cheat. In the front of the stage is a thing like an office clock. 1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. 179 The first of the two stages swooped upon the Toll House..in a cloud of dust. 1912J. Milne John Jonathan & Co. 92 A fleet of motor-buses, which the New Yorkers call ‘stages’, short for stage-coaches, meanders up and down it [sc. Fifth Avenue]. 1939Nat. Geogr. Mag. Feb. 133/2 Mammoth sleeper buses (which they still call ‘stages’). 1973R. Hayes Hungarian Game iii. 30 Nearly a dozen standbys had taken the stage back to Mammoth village.
10. a. A period of a journey through a subject, life, course of action, etc.
1608Shakes. Per. iv. iv. 9 To teach you, The stages of our storie. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 24 God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be, and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it, whereof old age is the last stage of all. 1648W. Juxon in Chas. I.'s Wks. (1662) I. 456 There is but one Stage more, yet..it will carry you from Earth to Heaven. 1672Cave Prim. Chr. iii. v. 355 Having travelled through the several stages of the Subject. 1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 674 In thy nocturnal rove, one moment halt, 'Twixt stage and stage, of riot and cabal. 1782Cowper Mut. Forbearance 49 The love that cheers life's latest stage.
b. stage-by-stage adj. phr., that proceeds by stages; step-by-step.
1956Nature 25 Feb. 391/1 Using the Townsend electron avalanche process in a gas in a stage-by-stage system. 1959Daily Tel. 14 Apr. 22/3 (heading) Stage-by-stage atomic offer to Russia. 1962E. Snow Red China Today (1963) xix. 139 An accurate stage-by-stage itinerary prepared for me by the First Army Corps showed a main trek of some 6,000 miles.
11. a. A period of development, a degree of progress, a step in a process.
1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) I. 146 Such as travellers have found among nations in the same stage of manners throughout the world. 1852Thackeray Esmond i. xii, 'Tis not to be imagined that Harry Esmond had all this experience at this early stage of his life. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 327 At every stage in the growth of that debt it has been seriously asserted by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. 1862Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2) 155 It is difficult to prevent the oxidation from going a stage further. 1863H. Cox Instit. i. vi. 43 It is necessary that at some stage of the Bill the consent of the Crown should be signified. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 13 The distinction..belongs to a stage of philosophy which has passed away. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 49 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they. 1889Pall Mall Gaz. 16 Oct. 1/2 Gradual development by stages, not complete transformation at a bound, is the law in the political, as in the natural, world. 1908E. M. Forster Room with View x. 170 She was too great for all society, and had reached the stage where personal intercourse would alone satisfy her. 1940J. Buchan Memory Hold-the-Door ii. 39, I have used the word politics, but at this stage I was no politician, being interested only to a small degree in theories, and not at all in parties. 1956W. S. Churchill Hist. Eng.-Speaking Peoples II. xx. 247 It was at this stage that a group of lawyers and gentry decided to offer Cromwell the crown. 1966Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 23 Dec. 429/1 This legislation will..come forward next term or in the following term, and it is at that stage that members of the House will be asked to take the responsibility of deciding [etc.]. 1977J. Thomson Case Closed i. 15 I'm not risking you making a balls-up of it at this stage in the game.
b. Med. A definite period in the development of a disease, marked by a specific group of symptoms. = stadium 3.
1747tr. Astruc's Fevers 281 This stage holds from the fourth, and sometimes from the eighth day after the eruption, till the tenth or twelfth day. 1780Mirror No. 70, I found him in the last stage of a dropsy. 1804Abernethy Surg. Observ. 65 In the advanced stage of this disease. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Med. x. 113 During the stage of rigor. 1878L. P. Meredith Teeth 154 The pulps of the teeth would..be exposed in the early stages of the disease.
c. Biol. Each of the several periods in the development and growth of animals and plants, frequently with qualifying word prefixed.
1882G. Allen in Nature 17 Aug. 371 The flowers of gymnosperms (in their blossoming stage) are mostly composed of green scales or leaves. 1909E. A. Mills Wild Life Rockies 186 When this forest is in a sapling stage. 1925,1932[see instar n.]. 1974Nature 18 Jan. 154/2 The term ‘stage’ is here used as equivalent to the French term étape and is composed of several ‘stadia’ separated by a moult.
d. slang. A period of imprisonment during which privileges are allowed.
1932‘Jock of Dartmoor’ Dartmoor from Within ii. 56 In his fourth year he [sc. the convict] enters the highest stage. In this stage he is permitted a tobacco and cigarette ration. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 30 My punishment was three days bread and water..and twenty eight days stage.
12. a. Electronics. A part of a circuit usu. comprising one transistor or valve, or two or more functioning as a single unit, and the associated resistors, capacitors, etc.
1920Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers LVIII. 65/1 This is the first attempt to deal comprehensively with the problems of the multiple-stage amplifier. 1930Proc. IRE XVIII. 1715 It will be seen that there are two stages of push-pull high-frequency amplification. 1944Electronic Engin. XVI. 392 A multivibrator functioning as a divider requires three valves per dividing stage. 1961Listener 9 Nov. 776/2 The relatively poor amplifying stages..in even the most costly television sets [are] incapable of providing the full and almost distortion-free sound of a genuine ‘high-fidelity’ system. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xiii. 18 An amplifier may take the form of a single stage or a complex single stage or it may employ an interconnection of several stages... For a multistage amplifier, the individual stages may be essentially identical or radically different.
b. Astronautics. Each of two or more sections of a rocket that have their own engines and propellant and fall away in turn as their propellant becomes exhausted.
1935C. G. Philp Stratosphere & Rocket Flight xii. 62 The first method consists of a rocket built in two or more stages, the first stage being a relatively low-power engine for use in the lower parts of the earth's atmosphere, and the second stage, or subsequent multiple stages, of increased power for use in the higher and more rarefied regions. 1948Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. VII. 168 Into this section propellant from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stage tanks is automatically transferred..so that as its own propellant is drawn off by the motor it is replaced and both the 4th and Final stages achieve ‘release velocity’ with tanks at capacity level. 1955Times 4 Aug. 6/2 We shall be limited to one-stage rockets at first, but afterwards we may work on two-stage rockets which will reach greater heights. 1963Ann. Reg. 1962 445 The satellite, weighing 170 lb., was placed in orbit by a three-stage Delta rocket. 1975K. Gatland Missiles & Rockets viii. 185 The first stage engines burnt for about 2½ minutes, boosting the Apollo astronauts to an altitude of 36 miles.
13. attrib. and Comb.:
a. obvious combinations (senses 5, 5 b) ‘pertaining to the stage’, as stage-action, stage apparatus, stage-attire, stage boards, stage business, stage-carpenter, stage-carpentering, stage-clothes, stage crew, stage-curtain, stage design, stage designer, stage-hand, stage legend, stage lighting, stage machine, stage-novel, stage-performer, stage-performance, stage-picture, stage-piece, stage-poet, stage-poetry, stage-sentiment, stage show, stage-side, stage-tradition, stage-trap, stage trick, † stage-trotter, stage version, † stage-walker, stage-wardrobe, stage-writing, etc.; that is seen on the stage or represented in drama as distinguished from what is seen in real life, as stage army, stage aside, stage death, stage-dialect, stage distraction, stage fighting, stage-gesture, stage hero, stage heroine, stage libertine, stage-lion, stage murderer, stage-villain, stage-whisper, etc.; similarly stage Australian, stage Frenchman, stage Irishman, etc.; stage Irish n. and adj. Also rarely with adjs., as stage-mad.
1697Dryden æneid Ded. (a) 2, There is no absolute necessity that the time of a *Stage-Action shou'd so strictly be confin'd to Twenty Four Hours.
1780T. Davies Garrick (1781) I. xiv. 168 The second musick..put him [an actor] in mind, that it was time to think of the *stage-apparatus.
1922C. S. Churchill Let. 4 Jan. in M. Soames Clementine Churchill (1979) xiii. 203 All the sad events of last year culminating in Marigold passing and re-passing like a *stage Army through my sad heart. 1957A. C. L. Day Outl. Monetary Economics xiii. 177 There was, therefore, a stage army of cash moving from bank to bank through each week, helping improve appearances.
1813M. Edgeworth Let. 16 May (1971) 53 Lady Derby he says is always acting—that there is continually a *stage aside which betrays her. 1945Essays & Studies 1944 XXX. 35 A dry unsympathetic comment delivered curtly like a stage-aside, ‘Would he had blotted a thousand!’
1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ii. 13 Poets have borrowed their best *stage-attire from the glorious Wardrobe of Israel.
1965Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Sept. 812/1 Only the baggy trousers and the wide brimmed hat anchor him to the image of the ‘*stage’ Australian, or the Boy from the Bush.
1831Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Ellistoniana, That harmonious fusion of the manners of the player into those of everyday life, which brought the *stage boards into streets and dining-parlours.
1825Ibid., Stage Illusion, In tragedy..this undivided attention to his *stage business seems indispensable.
1826O'Keeffe Recoll. I. iv. 146 Years after, some such enthusiastic spirit possessed the *stage carpenters at Cork. 1856Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 459 Stage-carpenters. 1899‘Mark Twain’ in Cosmopolitan Oct. 593/2 He had to retire from his profession of stage-carpentering.
1630*Stage-clothes [see stager 3].
1959Guardian 13 Nov. 9/3 The Banana Boat song was booming on the telly in the *stage-crew's room. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 112/1 The theatre can devote all its resources—orchestra, singers, coaches, stage crews, lighting team—to the preparation and performance of the work.
1659Lady Alimony i. ii, Be your *Stage-curtains artificially drawn.
1897Month Apr. 363 If the death of Cæsar is but *stage-death, the murderer of Cæsar is but a stage-murderer.
1943J. Leyda tr. S. Eisenstein's Film Sense ii. 77 This is an important law which can be found in painting, in *stage design..of this period. 1977J. Aiken Last Movement vi. 116 Is that your profession—stage design?
1938L. Bemelmans Life Class ii. iii. 141 An energetic hostess..will often arrive with a squadron of orchestra leaders, architects..and *stage designers. 1978R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xiii. 151 There was a man in London, a stage designer, who'd had a brief vogue as a decorator among the wealthy on both sides of the Atlantic.
1927New Republic 12 Oct. 218/2 Mr. Wiley has a further advantage over his fellow craftsmen in being master of two *stage-dialects—pidgin English and Negro. 1966G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising viii. 78 A music-hall comedian adopts a ‘stage-dialect’.
1804European Mag. XLV. 58/2 The youth..finding how he is abused, exhibits all the usual *stage distraction on the occasion.
1851Helps Comp. Solit. v. 73 Like the dialogues in a book, where, after much *stage-fighting, the author's opinion is always made to prevail.
1824in A. Mathews Mem. Charles Mathews (1839) III. xx. 453 Talbot is the stock Morbleu, which he makes a monkey—a ballet⁓master—in short, a *stage Frenchman.
a1774Goldsm. in Hawkins Life Johnson (1787) 418 Sheridan the player, in order to improve himself in *stage-gestures, had looking-glasses,..hung about his room.
1885F. Leslie in Entr'acte Ann. 22/1 The *stage hands were non-expectorants, and the ladies were quite vexed at the clean condition of the stage. 1907Westm. Gaz. 5 Feb. 7/2 As the accredited representatives of the artists, stage-hands, and musicians.
1751Warburton Note Pope's Wks. (1751) IV. 165 (Jod.), Ranting, the common vice of *stage heroes.
1844Marg. Fuller Wom. 19th C. (1862) 45 She had not the air and tone of a *stage-heroine.
1962Listener 1 Mar. 387/3 These pages are littered with wild *stage-Irish cries of ‘Jasez’, ‘begod’, and the like. 1962A. Lurie Love & Friendship xi. 208 ‘That's a gra-and idea,’ Charley said, stage Irish. 1977A. J. Bliss in D. O'Muirithe Eng. Lang. in Ireland 9 At this early date a conventional ‘stage Irish’ had been established. 1980J. O'Faolain No Country for Young Men v. 96 He must think he'd fallen into a stage-Irish household.
1860Players I. 131 The dialect he assumed, though it may not have been so productive of laughter as that in which the ‘*stage Irishman’ usually delivers himself. 1911G. B. Shaw in Evening Sun (N.Y.) 9 Dec. 4/6 The stage Irishman of the nineteenth century, generous, drunken, thriftless, with a joke always on his lips and a sentimental tear always in his eye. 1973J. Elsom Erotic Theatre ii. 33 A stage actress—as recognizable a type as a stage Irishman and more frequently seen.
1849Thackeray Pendennis iv, He was attired in the tight pantaloons and Hessian boots which the *stage legend has given to that injured man.
1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. On Artific. Comedy, We see a *stage libertine playing his loose pranks of two hours' duration.
1895New Budget 4 Apr. 21/1 One would have practically to invent new methods of scene-painting and *stage-lighting. 1908G. B. Shaw Let. 2 Aug. (1972) II. 804 There were some very clever tricks of stage lighting in the second act of Siegfried. 1983‘J. le Carré’ Little Drummer Girl iii. 51 The stage lighting was too good, she couldn't penetrate the haze.
1862Meredith Mod. Love xv. Wks. (1912) 139 The Poet's black *stage-lion of wronged love.
1693Dryden Juvenal iv. (1697) 86 So did [he] the Scenes and *Stage Machines admire.
1758Theatr. Rev. 5 This *stage-mad age.
1897*Stage-murderer [see stage-death].
a1816Sheridan Rivals Pref., Dram. Wks. 1902 I. 291, I..might..have boasted that it [this comedy] had done more real service in its failure than the successful morality of a thousand *stage-novels will ever effect.
1714R. Fiddes Pract. Disc. II. 379 Our *stage-performances, comedies especially,..have tended..to corrupt..the bravest nation under heaven.
1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. v. 179, I may here mention a *stage-performer whose show is usually enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling; I mean the mountebank.
1920W. B. Yeats Poems p. vii, When our *stage-pictures were made out of poor conventional scenery and hired costumes. 1949F. Fergusson Idea of Theatre i. 28 The contemplation of the final stage-picture or epiphany. 1980Times 29 Feb. 13/2 The WNO Onegin is..a procession of stage-pictures far beyond the everyday purview or opera production.
1912F. Harrison in Engl. Rev. Apr. 34 All this is enough to spoil any *stage-piece.
1658Sir A. Cokain Poems 186 Here Lies the *Stage-Poet Philip Massinger.
1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) Ded. 10 [As the age] of Euripides..[was noted] for *Stage-Poetry amongst the Greeks.
1829Carlyle Crit. & Misc. Ess. (1840) II. 93 It is fair, well-ordered *stage-sentiment this of his.
1895G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 16 Feb. 217/1 *Stage shows with nothing to redeem their obvious silliness but a promise of as much lewdness as the audience will stand. 1982N. Frye Great Code v. 117 The Puritan and Jansenist prejudice against ‘stage shows’.
1758Johnson in Boswell Life (1909) I. 217 Doddy..went every night to the *stage-side, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone.
1823Scott Quentin D. xxvi. note, This gesture..is also by *stage-tradition a distinction of Shakespeare's Richard III.
1852Mundy Our Antipodes (1857) 94 The ‘poor ghosts’ who..sink pale and silent through the *stage-trap of the cabin-stairs.
1776St. James's Chron. 19 Oct., Allowing reasonably for *stage trick, this appears to us to be extravagantly over-done. 1895G. B. Shaw Let. 28 Nov. (1965) I. 572 This is not one of my great plays..: it is only a display of my knowledge of stage tricks.
1614R. Tailor Hog hath lost Pearl i. i. B 3, Pl[ayer]. Nay, I pray sir be not angry; for as I am a true *stage-trotter, I meane honestly.
1856A. C. Ritchie Mimic Life 105 Desdemona, according to the *stage version (which omits her during the midnight brawl). 1955Radio Times 22 Apr. 31/2 ‘A Woman of No Importance’..Adapted for radio from the stage version.
1885A. Edwardes Girton Girl II. xvii. 281 Dismissed as one occasionally sees the frustrated *stage villain, long before the final falling of the curtain! 1896Peterson Mag. Jan. 103/2 With a stage-villain glance at the speaker.
1602Dekker Satirom. I 3 b, These part⁓takers..(Players I meane) Theaterians pouch-mouth *Stage-walkers.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. i. ii, He has..his very Troop of Players, with their..*stage-wardrobes [etc.].
1778Theobald Shaks. Wks. VIII. 558 note, I never heard it so much as intimated, that he had turned his genius to *stage-writing before he associated with the players.
b. (sense 9, 9 c), as stage-boat, stage-carriage, stage-cart, stage-fly, stage-horn, stage-line, stage-office, stage post, stage-road, stage-route, stage-track, stage vehicle; objective, as stage-driver, stage-robber.
1753Hanway Trav. (1762) II. i. ix. 46 These *stage-boats are extremely commodious.
1839W. Pennefather Let. 7 Sept. in R. Braithwaite Life (1878) 79 The *stage car [Ireland] proceeded slowly.
1832Act 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 120 §5 That every Carriage used..for..conveying Passengers for Hire,..and which shall travel at the Rate of Three Miles or more in the Hour, shall be deemed and taken to be a *Stage Carriage within the meaning of this Act. 1837–8Act 1 & 2 Vict. c. 79 §1 And the Words ‘Metropolitan Stage Carriage’ shall include [etc.].
1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 374 The London common *stage⁓carts have large wheels.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 36 Hourra! *stage-driver's blowin' away like fun.
1821Blackw. Mag. X. 656 In going in the *stage-fly from my own parish to Kilmartin.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 112 A sound, like that of a *stage-horn, arose from the valley.
1830Williams's N.Y. Ann. Reg. 115 Other principal *Stage lines from Albany. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 341 The route of the Butterfield stage-line..was through it.
1882L. D'A. Jackson Mod. Metrol. 43 The German *stage⁓miles do not follow this type.
1812J. McNab Jrnl. 4 Mar. in Beaver (1973) Summer 9/2 We..inquired at the *stage office when the sleigh sets out for New York on Friday. 1872‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 22 The first thing we did..was to hunt up the stage-office, and pay..for tickets per overland coach.
1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2601/4 Late Servant at the Crane Inn at Edgworth.., and riding the *Stage Post between that Town and London.
1872Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 11 A distance of 42 miles by *stage-road.
1907Putnam's Monthly July 486/1 Money..that was taken from Heinz by the *stage-robber.
1874Raymond 6th Rep. Mines 307 This valley is located on the *stage-route from Denver to Fair Play.
1890L. D'Oyle Notches 61 Crossing the river at the old *stage⁓track.
1808H. More Cœlebs I. xxiii. 338 An over stuffed *stage vehicle.
c. (sense 4 h), as stage condenser, stage forceps, stage micrometer, stage plate.
1856W. B. Carpenter Microscope §66. 143 Every Microscope should be furnished with a pair of Stage-forceps for holding minute objects beneath the object-glass. Ibid. §67. 144 Glass Stage-Plate. 1857Beale How to Work with Microscope 22 Placing..the stage micrometer..under the object-glass. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 2947, Stage forceps,..stage condenser. 1864Chamb. Encycl. VI. 443/1 Stage-plate, on which the object is placed [in a microscope].
14. Special comb.: † stage-blanks, dramatic blank verse (see blank n. 8); stage box, each of the boxes over the proscenium of a theatre; † stage cloth, a carpet for the ‘stage’ or platform of an altar; stage-craft, that part of the art of dramatic composition which is concerned with the conditions of representation on the stage; stage critic, a critic of the drama; † stage-cutter (see quot. 1820 in sense 4 f); stage direction, (a) a direction inserted in a written or printed play where it is thought necessary to indicate the appropriate action, etc.; (b) stage-management (also fig.); stage director orig. U.S., a stage-manager; also, more recently, a director (sense 1 g); † stage-doctor, a quack doctor who practised on a stage (see 4 a) in public; stage-door, (a) the entrance to that part of a theatre used by the players as distinguished from the public entrance; also, attrib.; † (b) a door at the side of the proscenium arch (obs.); stage-door Johnny slang (chiefly U.S.), a (young) gentleman who frequents stage-doors for the company of actresses; stage-effect, (a) effect on the spectators of what is shown on the stage; also fig.; (b) a spectacular effect exhibited on the stage; stage-entrance = stage-door; stage-fever, † (a) = stage-fright (obs.); (b) an intense desire to adopt the stage as a profession; stage-fright, nervousness experienced by an actor when appearing before an audience, esp. on his first appearance; stage-gangway (see quot.); stage-head, the head of a fishing stage (see 4 f); stage-house, † (a) a play-house, theatre (obs.); (b) U.S. a house of accommodation used as a regular stopping place for stage-coaches; † stage-keeper, (a) one who keeps or carries on a theatre; (b) ? a servant in a theatre employed to keep the stage in order; stage-kiln (see quot.); stage-land, the ‘world’ of the stage and its occupants; stage-like a., resembling that of drama or the stage; theatrical; stageman, † (a) an actor (obs.); (b) a workman engaged about the stage; stagemanship nonce-wd., the profession of a stage-coachman; stage name, a professional name assumed by an actor; stage-place, the place where a play is acted (obs. or arch.); stage presence, the (forceful) impression made by a performer on an audience; stage-property = property n. 3, also attrib.; stage pumping (see quot.); stage-right (see quot.); stage-room, the locality or setting of a play; stage-scene, † (a) the scenery of a stage (obs.); (b) a scene in a play; stage school, an academy of drama; stage-set = set n.1 28; (also transf.); stage-setter, a practitioner of the art of stagesetting; stage-setting, the disposition of the persons of a play and the accessories on the stage; also fig.; † stage-smitten a. = stage-struck; stage-stand U.S., a place on a stage-coach route where horses are changed; stage-stricken a. rare = next; stage-struck a., smitten with love for the stage or drama or with the desire to become an actor; † stage-wagon, one of the wagons belonging to an organized system of conveyance for heavy goods and passengers by road; stage-wait, a delay or hitch in the course of a theatrical performance; stage-whisper, a conventional whisper used on the stage, purposely made audible to the spectators; hence as v. trans., (a) to address (a person) in a stage-whisper; (b) with obj. as direct speech: to say (something) in a stage-whisper; stage-whispered ppl. a., spoken in a stage-whisper; stage-whispering ppl. a.; stage-work, † (a) ‘play-acting’, histrionic ceremony (obs.); (b) the work of an actor or of a theatrical company; dramatic representation; also, a dramatic work; (c) the framework of a stage; (d) stage-coach work; stage working (see quot.); stage-worthy a., worthy of representation on the stage; hence stage-worthiness; stage-wright, a dramatist, playwright.
1635Massinger On death Chas. Ld. Herbert 7, I..bit my star-crossed pen, Too busy in *stage-blanks and trifling rhyme.
1739Cibber Apol. (1889) II. xii. 85 The former lower Doors of Entrance for the Actors were brought down between the..Pilasters; in the Place of which Doors now the two *Stage-Boxes are fixt. 1857H. Martineau Autobiogr. I. iv. 388 [Mr. Macready] gave us the stage box, whenever we chose to ask for it. 1982C. Castle Folies Bergère ii. 64 He was to be seen..accepting congratulations in a stage box.
1552in Archæologia XLIII. 236, vj *stage clothes for the aulter, iij of blew, j of redd, vj of whight.
1882Society 7 Oct. 12/1 Their ingenuity and knowledge of *stagecraft is wonderful.
1780T. Davies Garrick (1781) I. i. 17 That gross illiberality which often disgraces the instructions of modern *stage criticks.
1790Malone Pref. to Shaks. I. p. lviii, The very few *stage directions which the old copies exhibit. 1833R. Dyer Nine Years of Actor's Life 78, I began a correspondence with the well-known Henry Lee, and finally agreed to take the stage direction of his theatres. 1858Thackeray Virgin. I. xvii. 130 But Lady Castelwood could not operate upon the said eyes then and there, like the barbarous monsters in the stage-direction in King Lear. 1962V. Nabokov Pale Fire 55 When morning finds us marching to the wall Under the stage direction of some goon Political, some uniformed baboon.
1782T. Hall in G. O. Seilhamer Hist. Amer. Theatre (1889) II. v. 55 Before you see one of your *stage directors Or, if you please, one of those strange projectors. 1849Theatrical Mirror 27 Aug. 101/1 Mr A. Harris, stage-director of the Royal Italian Opera, of Covent Garden, has been presented with a piece of plate. 1908E. Terry Story of my Life xiv. 326 It was not as an actor but as a stage director that he wanted to work. 1979A. Williamson Funeral March for Siegfried ix. 42 ‘We'll have to chase up the stage staff,’..‘I can give you the stage director's address.’
1774Adam Smith Let. 20 Sept. in J. Thomson Life W. Cullen I. 476 *Stage-doctors do not much excite the indignation of the faculty; more reputable quacks do.
1761A. Murphy Way to keep Him (ed. 4) v. 101 Enter Lady Constant. Lovemore No way to escape?—[Attempts both *stage doors, and is prevented]. 1776R. Y. Walsingham Let. 6 Feb. in J. Boaden Private Corresp. David Garrick (1832) II. 134 That you will be so good as to pardon the stage-door keeper for admitting me last night. 1778Johnson L. P., Fenton (1781) III. 114 They determined all to see the Merry Wives of Windsor..; and Fenton, as a dramatick poet, took them to the stage door. 1829H. Foote Companion to Theatres 33 At this time, the proscenium was altered; stage doors were introduced, there having been none in the original building. 1883D. Cook On Stage I. ix. 187 Of such stage-doors as are here described there is no London theatre in possession. 1885Jerome On the Stage 26 The mere announcement of my name had no visible effect upon the stage-door keeper.
1912Out West Feb. 139/1 No theater can hope to do business without *stage door Johnnies. 1922[see rich adv. 10 b]. 1952Granville Dict. Theatrical Terms 169 Stage-door Johnny, the Victorian buck..who haunted the stage door of the Gaiety Theatre, London,..when some of the most beautiful women of the day were members of the chorus. 1976Botham & Donnelly Valentino iv. 35 Two Ziegfield Follies girls who were doing the town with a pair of wealthy stage-door Johnnies.
1795S. Rogers Words to be Spoken by Mrs. Siddons 20 Every Woman studies *stage-effect. 1835T. Mitchell Acharn. of Aristoph. 164 note, The σπονδαὶ are here evidently introduced on the stage, as mutes, characteristically habited. The same stage-effect occurs in the Equites, 1387–1395.
1830J. Bernard Retrospections of Stage II. ix. 273 He got the carpenter to fix a bucket on a swivel, over the *stage-entrance of the Theatre. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) xii. 112 We were supposed to pick up all the cats at the Braddock Motel.., near the stage entrance of the Apollo.
1861Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 142/1 Some of the young chaps..get the *stage-fever and knocking in the knees. We've had to shove them on to the scene. 1882Ashton Soc. Life Q. Anne II. 21 He caught stage fever, ran away from school..and joined the theatre at Dublin.
1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer xxi. 169 A ghastly *stage-fright seized him. 1878Mrs. Cowden Clarke Recoll. Writers 300 It proved to them that I was not liable to stage-fright. 1885Jerome On the Stage viii. 72 Strange to say, I never experienced stage-fright at any time.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Brow, A *stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying..articles on board.
1677W. Hubbard Narrative ii. (1865) 46 Coming too near the *Stage head, they presently found themselves in danger of a surprizal.
1638in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 55 Tiles for y⊇ new *Stagehouse. 1788M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 431 Put up my horse at the stage-house in the street leading from Ordway's Market to Powles Hook Ferry.
a1586Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 44 Perchance it is the Comick, whom naughtie Play-makers and *Stage⁓keepers, have iustly made odious. 1637Shirley Example Prol., They..on whom, i' the Roman state, Some ill-looked stage-keepers, like lictors, wait, With pipes for fasces.
1910Encycl. Brit. V. 655/1 (Cement) There are also *stage kilns..which consist of two vertical shafts, one above the other..connected by a horizontal channel.
1885Pall Mall Gaz. 15 May 5/1 Mr. Jerome [in On the stage—and off] describes from a humorous point of view those lower levels of *stageland. 1893N. Amer. Rev. Aug. 168 She had the convulsions which stageland arsenic brings on.
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 105 Leauing *stagelike pompes, which dasell the eyes of the simple. 1694F. Bragge Disc. Parables xiv. 466 A strange kind of humiliation, that..does indeed look too Stage-like to be thought real by any discerning man.
1589T. Brabine in Greene's Menaphon In praise of Author, You witts that..striue to thunder from a *Stage⁓mans throate. 1887Pall Mall Gaz. 9 Sept. 2/1 The class of stagemen employed in such places as these [theatres].
1845Talfourd Vacat. Rambles I. 67 The departing race of English stage-coachmen, who shed a half-genteel grace on the last days of English *stagemanship.
1847L. Hunt Men, Women, & B. (1876) 298 Lavinia Fenton sounds like a *stage-name. 1941A. Christie Evil under Sun iv. 66 He doubted if Arlena Stuart, to give her her stage name, had ever wanted to be alone in her life. 1959T. S. Eliot Elder Statesman ii. 51 You know I meant my stage name. The name by which you knew me. 1977Sounds 9 July 28/1 Stooges..headed by James Osterburg—stage name Iggy Stooge.
a1564Becon Articles Chr. Relig. xiv. Wks. II. 143 b, When thys Theatre or *stage place be once dissolued, then is there nomore deseruyng of Crownes. 1902E. Arnold Nativity xiv. in Delineator LX. 967 This Was scene and stage-place of the immortal story.
1929Melody Maker Feb. 195/2 There was a wide gap between the *stage presence of the cornet soloist and the stage presence of the other artists. 1959R. Longrigg Wrong Number iv. 49 Mrs. Proctor, in the soubrette part of the kitchen-maid, made up for her vocal uncertainty with a racy and convincing stage presence. 1977Zigzag Aug. 16/1 Syl's got a lot of what directors call ‘stage presence’.
1850Dyce Marlowe's Wks. I. Introd. 17 note, Among the *stage-properties of the Lord Admiral's men we find ‘j. dragon in fostes’. 1863Le Fanu Ho. by Churchyard I. x. 108 [He] viewed the wiglet with the eye of a stage-property man.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 234 *Stage Pumping, draining a mine by means of two or more pumps placed at different levels.
1860Reade 8th Commandm. 61 The copyrights only of French authors, not the *stage-rights, were to be protected. Copyright is the sole and exclusive right of printing. Stage-right the sole and exclusive right of representation on a public stage.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. 10 Whom no lesse then almost halfe the world could serve for *stage roome to play the Mime in. 1814Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) III. ix. 293 Reducing the knowledge I have acquired of the localities of the islands into scenery and stage⁓room for the ‘Lord of the Isles’.
1664Power Exp. Philos. Pref. 18 Outside Fallacies; like our *Stage-scenes, or Perspectives, that shew things inwards, when they are but superficial paintings. 1822Shelley Chas. I, i. 35 That stage-scene in which thou art Not a spectator but an actor. 1865Kingsley Herew. xxvi, [A fire] breaking the bones of its prey with a horrible cracking uglier than all stage-scene glares.
1936N. Streatfeild Ballet Shoes iv. 55 She..ran an ordinary *stage school where the children learnt all kinds of dancing. 1977S. Brett Star Trap ii. 24 He came out of one of the stage schools... He may have been a child star in films.
1861*Stage set [see set n.1 28]. 1947J. C. Rich Materials & Methods of Sculpture i. 13 In designing for a garden..an excellent and highly recommended procedure is first to make a small three-dimensional scale model of the garden and its immediate environs, and to use this small ‘stage-set’ actively as an aid in determining the nature and placing of the garden ornament. 1958S. Spender Engaged in Writing i. 13 A large, bare room with faded nineteenth-century murals, like the back of an operatic stage-set. 1977Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXX. 427/2 A collaborative effort in which satirical comedy is fused with the sort of music, dance, lavish costumes and stage-sets used in court ballets.
1888Century Mag. Feb. 544/2 M. Sardou is a born *stage-setter.
1881C. C. Harrison Woman's Handiwork iii. 152 All the little invisible wires that control the scenery and ‘*stage setting’ of a home-interior. 1905C. F. Keary in Author 1 Feb. 145 There is no harm in M. Antoine's realism of stage-setting. 1929Oxford Poetry 10 For three-and-twenty years, he curled And drooped, on this stage-setting of the world. 1982P. Raby ‘Fair Ophelia’ iv. 48 Ciceri extended into the sphere of stage settings the reforms which Talma himself had introduced so far as historical accuracy of costume was concerned.
1682A. Behn City Heiress 8 Our *Stage-smitten Youth fall in love with a woman for Acting finely.
1856Mrs. Stowe Dred II. xii. 127 He pushed forward,..and, at the first *stage-stand, changed him [the horse] for a fresh one.
1838Dickens Mem. Grimaldi i, The *stage-stricken young gentlemen who..long to embrace the theatrical profession.
1813Scott Trierm. ii. ii, Or *stage-struck Juliet may presume To choose this bower for tiring-room. 1911Stage struck [see rumble n. 6]. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 6 Nov., Despite warnings of financial trouble in the theatre,..she has remained stage-struck throughout her life after deciding at the age of four to become an actress.
1761Ann. Reg., Chron. 184 For robbing the Bath *stage waggon on the highway. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 376 Heavy articles were, in the time of Charles the Second, generally conveyed from place to place by stage waggons.
1865M. E. Braddon Only a Clod II. i. 23 There were the usual number of dead pauses in the drama, technically known as ‘*stage-waits’.
1864H. Morley Jrnl. 17 Dec. (1866) 355 His bedroom scene, spoken throughout in an oppressively ostentatious *stage whisper, is an intolerable blunder. 1865Hotten's Slang Dict. 244 Stage-whisper. 1883Howells Register ii. in Harper's Mag., Dec. 79/2 Miss Reed, in a stage-whisper. 1927J. N. McIlwraith Kinsmen at War xx. 198 Mrs. Secord spoke in a stage whisper. 1960J. Rae Custard Boys i. v. 52 ‘Who's your German friend?’ he asked in a stage whisper. 1977W. M. Spackman Armful of Warm Girl 38 A huge handsome white-haired classmate flung himself jovially upon them..to beg in a whooping and waggish stage-whisper.
1932Kipling Limits & Renewals 80 Private Gillock, who poses as a wit, was *stage-whispering me for leave to ‘put a shot into his radiator’. 1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? iii. 49 ‘What are you thinking about, honey?’ Billie stage-whispered. 1979R. Littell Debriefing iii. 33 ‘Do you have the pouch?’ she stage-whispers.
1978G. Sims Rex Mundi iv. 26 The *stage-whispered duet started again... I made out only odd words.
1883‘Mark Twain’ Life on Miss. xxxi. 342 ‘The captain's voice, by G―!’ said the *stage-whispering ruffian.
1649Milton Eikon. xix. 172 But the King and his Party..Canonize one another into Heav'n;..but, as was sayd before, *Stage-work will not doe it. 1829Sporting Mag. XXIII. 194 The antediluvian principle of ‘any thing's good enough for stage-work’. 1898Daily News 25 Oct. 8/5 Two large joists..had been placed in position in the stagework. 1906Macm. Mag. June 595 The musical comedy..has wrought grave injury to all intelligent stage⁓work. 1913Illustr. Lond. News 22 Feb. 230/2 That happiest and liveliest of all Oscar Wilde's stage-works.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 235 *Stage working, a system of working minerals by open hole in which the various beds are removed in steps or stages.
1973Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Oct. 1272/4 The recent Jonathan Miller production of The Malcontent has demonstrated that play's *stageworthiness.
1820Byron Mar. Fal. Pref., Were I capable of writing a play which could be deemed *stage-worthy. 1959Times 4 Dec. 15/1 None of his [sc. Mussorgsky's] operatic undertakings is stageworthy. 1979Amer. N. & Q. Nov. 40/1 In an effective and stageworthy central scene, the old miser's secrets..are discovered.
1630*Stage-wright [see stager 3]. 1897Tablet 18 Sept. 457 [Shakespere] our greatest stage⁓wright and philosopher.
Add:[9.] d. Sport. Any of the sections into which a long-distance race or rally is divided. In quot. 1943, a racing competition for a particular category of contestants (U.S.).
1943Sun (Baltimore) 13 Aug. 14/5 The stage for three-year-old trotters was won by Camay. 1958Health & Strength 19 June 8/1 There was an impressive crowd to watch the stage winner. 1967Guardian 14 July 1/2 Tommy Simpson, the British cyclist, died early this evening after collapsing during a mountain stage of the Tour de France. 1977G. Nicholson Great Bike Race (1978) viii. 91 He had risen to seventh overall, and this was still his position on the morning of July 13 when the Tour set out on the thirteenth stage from Marseille to Carpentras. 1986Grand Prix Internat. July 10/3 The equally notorious Ouninpohja stage will be shortened and the faster sections will be by-passed.
Add:[IV.] [14.] stage-diving vbl. n. orig. U.S., the practice (esp. among audience members) of jumping from the stage at a rock concert, etc., to be caught and carried aloft by the crowd below; so as ppl. a.; also stage-dive v. intr., stage-diver n.
1984Washington Post 12 Nov. c6/4 Obscured by a cascade of *stage-diving fans, Marginal Man and Government Issue played traditional D.C. hard-core featuring adolescent social comment atop a breathtakingly fast guitar attack. 1985Los Angeles Times 29 June v. 5/3 The spell was soon interrupted when a stage-diver snatched the radio transmitter from Marr's guitar and returned to the audience, followed closely by Marr and a squad of security men. 1987Sounds 1 Aug. 3/1 Onslaught, the Bristol thrash band, are taking steps to prevent their fans injuring themselves by stage diving at their gigs. Ibid. 3/2 Stage diving isn't violence, it's enthusiasm. 1992N.Y. Times 19 Jan. ii. 29/5 Rock bands playing clubs can count on stage-divers and slam-dancers—now part of virtually any loud and uptempo scene. 1993New Musical Express 17 Apr. 26/2 The girls all pogo. There's no crushing, no stage-diving. No-one's hurt. 1994Rolling Stone 16 June 50/3 Midway through Tad's set, a crew member throws open the door of Soundgarden's dressing room and excitedly blurts, ‘Tad just stage-dived!’
▪ II. stage, v.|steɪdʒ|
[f. stage n.]
†1. trans. To erect, build. Obs. rare—1.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 3090 Brugges ouer watres dide he stage.
2. To furnish with a stage or staging; in quots. with about. Now rare or Obs. † Also absol. or intr., to set up a platform or scaffolding.
1506Justs of May & June in Hazl. E.P.P. (1866) II. 114 A lady fayre..With seruauntes foure brought was into a place Staged about Whereon stode lordes and ladyes a grete route. 1526Dunmow Churchw. MS. lf. 5 To purvay syce stufe as the workemen showlde nede, and to sett them a-worke, and helpe to stage. 1598Stow Surv. 388 The great Hall..was richly hanged with Arras, and Staged about on both sides. 1879J. D. Long Virgil's æneid ix. 690 A far-outlooking tower, staged high about, Stood in the way.
3. a. To put (a person) into a play; to satirize in drama; to represent (a character, an incident) on the stage. Sometimes in phr. to stage to the crowd or show.
1601B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv, Death of Pluto, and you Stage mee, Stinkard; your Mansions shall sweate for't. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. xiii. 30 Hye battel'd Cæsar will..be Stag'd to 'th 'shew Against a Sworder. Ibid. v. ii. 217 The quicke Comedians Extemporally will stage us. 1607Middleton Five Gall. iv. viii. H 3, Gold. What if we fiue presented our full shapes In a..maske? Frip. Some Poet must assist vs. Go. Poet? Youle take the direct line to haue vs sta'gde? 1621J. Taylor (Water P.) Superbiæ Flagellum C 6 b, Cudgeld and bastinadoed at the Court, And Comically stag'de to make men sport. 1721Southerne Disappointment iii. i, O! may I be that hateful thing I scorn! The common, ridden cuckold of the Town, Stag'd to the crowd on publick theatres. 1879Swinburne Stud. Shaks. (1880) 273 The next two scenes, in which the battle of Poitiers is so inadequately ‘staged to the show’. 1898G. Wyndham Poems Shaks. Introd. 61 Jonson staged Marston in Every Man out of His Humour (1599), as Carlo Buffone:—‘a public, scurrilous and profane jester’.
b. fig.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. i. i. 69 Ile priuily away: I loue the people, But doe not like to stage me to their eyes. 1784R. Bage Barham Downs II. 4 Too long I had staged me to their eyes in these my true habiliments.
c. To put (a play, etc.) upon the stage.
1879Theatre Nov. 209 If an..author..permits a play of his to be mounted and staged without his permission. 1887Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Sept. 5/2 As pretty a pastoral scene as has ever been staged, even at the Lyceum. 1894Times 10 Sept. 10/3 The piece is staged in the most sumptuous manner imaginable.
d. transf. To mount or put on (a spectacle). Also, to effect (a recovery); to stage a comeback: see come-back n.2 2.
1924F. J. Haskin Amer. Govt. (rev. ed.) xxxvii. 437 In combating..bootlegging,..Federal agents..staged raids that revealed..the widespread extent of Volstead Law violations. 1951Sport 27 Apr.–3 May 5/1 It is grand to think that the event can be staged at Wembley. 1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 122 His Nazi-trained students staged a protest. 1973Daily Tel. 15 Feb. 1/4 More than 500 students staged a sit-in at Cambridge University yesterday. 1981Times 9 May 19/4 A gradual return of confidence saw equities and gilts stage a rally yesterday.
†4. Sc. To bring (a person) to trial for an offence (esp. before the ecclesiastical courts). Cf. stage n. 4 c. Const. for, with (an offence). Also fig. Obs.
1671[R. MacWard] True Nonconf. 223 All the regard to the powers, whereof..you..boast, doth not here in the least restrain you from staging these two Kings with us, as Monstruous imposers. 1681in J. H. Thomson Cloud of Witnesses (1871) 119, I [Isobel Alison: see quot. 1722] told them, If they had staged me, they might remember my name. 1682Fountainhall Diary Aug., in Law's Memor. (1818) 236 note, Kepperminshoo accused him of perjury. He was also staged with bribery. 1722Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. (1830) III. iii. v. 275/2 Upon the 17th of January, I find Isabel Alison..and Marian Harvey..staged for their lives before the justiciary. 1729in Wodrow's Corr. (1843) III. 429 He thought Mr Simson was staged for heretical opinions.
5. To put (plants) on a stage; to exhibit (plants or other objects) at a show. Also absol.
1850Beck's Florist 249 There were several useful flowers staged, but few novelties. 1881F. Young Ev. Man his own Mech. §930 For staging auriculas the distance between the rows of shelves need not be so great as for pelargoniums. 1883Goole Weekly Times 7 Sept. 8/2 With holyhocks, he has taken first and second prizes every time he has staged them. 1897C.T.C. Monthly Gaz. Jan. 24 A few silver-plated models were staged.
6. a. intr. To travel by stage or stage-coach; to travel by stages; to journey over by stages; also to stage it.
1695Phil. Trans. XIX. 144 This way..we assented to, as more eligible, than..to wander so far out of the Road, to have the same Ground to stage over again the next morning. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 34 A Set of these Rascals [Coolies]..bait them generously shall stage it a Month together. 1713[W. Darrell] Gentl. Instr. iii. vi. (ed. 5) 420 [A traveller]..learns the great Mystery of Foreign Governments;..he stages (if I may say so) into Politicks, and rides Post into Business. 1819Coleridge Lett., Convers., etc. I. 19 Riding, driving, or staging to London. 1840Mrs. Trollope Widow Married xv, I wonder how the old lady came, whether she staged it, or posted? 1882D. Pidgeon Engineer's Holiday I. 228, I staged three miles from its terminus to Leadville.
b. Of a pilot or aircraft: to make a brief landing in the course of a long journey.
1971P. Purser Holy Father's Navy i. iii. 17 The pilot [had]..staged in Iceland and was on his way to Norway. 1973D. Kyle Raft of Swords (1974) i. iv. 32 The agent..was in time to join the Air Canada Hawaii to Montreal flight when it staged at Vancouver.
7. trans. Astronautics. To separate (a section or stage) from the upper or remaining part of a rocket. Also intr. of the stage.
1957Collier's Encycl. Year Bk. 1956 264/1 After launching, when the propellants in the booster tanks are nearly exhausted, the three motors and the rear tanks will be staged, or shut down and separated from the missile. 1962J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 246 When one section of it [sc. a multi-stage booster] separates and is jettisoned.., the section is said to have staged. 1966H. O. Ruppe Introd. Astronaut. I. iii. 91 It is possible to ‘parallel-stage’ tankage or engines only... E.g., a three-stage vehicle can have its first and second stages parallel staged, and the second and third stages tandem staged.
8. To cause (a person) to pass through stages; to bring about (something) in stages.
1957A. C. Clarke Deep Range ix. 83 We've got to haul him in around the hundred-and-fifty-foot level—no higher—and then start staging him in the air lock. 1962E. Snow Red China Today (1963) iii. xxxviii. 279 We staged them through quick courses of training and retraining in the Ningtu technique. 1980Daily Tel. 15 Mar. 1/7 The Government will ‘stage’ the payment of the increases to stay within its cash limits.
▪ III. stage
variant of stag a. Obs. |