| Stave 1. (n.) 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. (n.) One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc. 3. (n.) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff. 4. (n.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff. 5. (n.) 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. 6. (n.) To push, as with a staff; -- with off. 7. (n.) To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project. 8. (n.) To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask. 9. (n.) To furnish with staves or rundles. 10. (n.) 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. 11. (v. i.) To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments. Thesaurus Entries Malacca cane, Spenserian stanza, advocate, alpenstock, antistrophe, arm, athletic supporter, back, backbone, backing, bandeau, bar, bar line, barrel, baton, beam, bearer, billet, board, boarding, book, bra, brace, bracer, bracket, brassiere, bucket, bullet, burden, buttress, cane, canto, carrier, cervix, chorus, clapboard, cord, cordwood, corset, couplet, crook, crosier, cross, cross-staff, crutch, crutch-stick, deal, degree, distich, doorstep, driftwood, envoi, epode, firewood, footrest, footstep, foundation garment, fulcrum, girdle, guy, guywire, handstaff, hardwood, haste, hasten, heptastich, hexastich, highball, hotfoot, hustle, jock, jockstrap, lath, lathing, lathwork, ledger line, line, lituus, log, lumber, mainstay, maintainer, mast, measure, monostich, neck, octastich, octave, octet, ottava rima, panelboard, paneling, panelwork, pastoral staff, paterissa, pentastich, plank, planking, plyboard, plywood, pole, post, prop, puncheon, quarterstaff, quatrain, refrain, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, rhyme royal, rigging, riser, round, rundle, rung, scale, septet, sestet, sextet, shake, sheathing, sheathing board, sheeting, shillelagh, shingle, shoulder, shroud, sideboard, siding, slab, slat, softwood, space, spine, splat, spoke, sprit, staff, stair, standing rigging, stanza, stay, step, step stool, stepping-stone, stick, stick of wood, stiffener, stovewood, strain, strengthener, string, strophe, support, supporter, sustainer, swagger stick, swanking stick, syllable, tercet, terza rima, tetrastich, three-by-four, timber, timbering, timberwork, tread, triplet, tristich, two-by-four, upholder, verse, walking stick, weatherboard, wood |