stave
noun · verb
Simple meaning
One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stayvIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsteɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
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; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.
One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
A sign, symbol or sigil, including rune or rune-like characters, used in Icelandic magic.
A staff or walking stick.
poetry
A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
verb
transitivewith 'off'
To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
transitiveusually with 'off'
To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.
Burst or force (a hole) into something
transitive
To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: 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; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.
Used this way, stave is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a nautical use: it is standard at sea and largely unfamiliar ashore.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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