Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stave?

\Stave\, n. [From {Staff}, and corresponding to the pl. staves. See {Staff}.] 1. One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; esp., one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc. 2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc. 3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff. Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero brave. --Wordsworth. 4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff. [Obs.] {Stave jointer}, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.
\Stave\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Staved}or {Stove}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Staving}.] [From {Stave}, n., or {Staff}, n.] 1. To break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst; -- often with in; as, to stave a cask; to stave in a boat. 2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off. The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance. --South. 3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project. And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or guilties, to stave off a chance That breaks upon them perilously. --Tennyson. 4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask. All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys. 5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles. 6. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run. {To stave and tail}, in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to hold back the dog by the tail. --Nares.
\Stave\, v. i. To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments. Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank. --Longfellow.