Definition and meaning of stave

StaveStave (stāv), 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 printed; the staff{7}. [Obs.]

Stave jointer, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.

StaveStave, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Staved (stāvd) or Stove (stōv); 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 guiltless, 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.

StaveStave, v. i. To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.

Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank. Longfellow.