Forms: 4–5 stabille, (5 -ylle), 4–5 stabul, 5 stabull(e, Sc. stabill, 5–6 stabil, 6 stabell, 7 stabel, 3– stable: pl. 4 stablen, 5 stablis, stablez, 6 stabullys, Sc. stabulez, 6– stables. [a. OF. estable masc. and fem., stable, also applied to a cowhouse, pigsty, etc. (mod.F. étable fem. cowhouse):—L. stabulum (also pop.L. stabula pl. used as fem. sing.) stable, stall, enclosure or fold for animals, lit. standing place, f. sta- root of stāre to stand. Cf. Sp. establo, Pg. estabulo stable, It. stabbio sheepfold, Rumanian staul (whence mod.Gr. σταῦλος).]
1. A building fitted with stalls, loose-boxes, rack and manger and harness appliances, in which horses are kept. Formerly used in a wider sense: † a building in which domestic animals, as cattle, goats, etc., are kept.
c. 1250. Owl & Night., 629. Vor hors a stable, & oxe a stalle, boþ al þat hom wule þar falle.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5669. And þe hous of malmesbury … He made hit stable to his hors.
1340. Ayenb., 210. Huo … þet mest heþ hors mest him fayleþ gromes and stablen.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 168. Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 153. Also bestes þat were i-woned to lyve among men forsoke stable and lesewe.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 152. My mastyre alowyd hys fermour … ffor otys that he toke to my lordys stable … v. s. x. d.
1511. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 262. Item, to ane grume of the stabulez of Falkland … xiij s.
1538. Starkey, Dialogue, I. iii. (1871), 133. Wher hath byn many housys and churchys … you schal fynd no thyng but schypcotys and stabullys.
1588. Exch. Rolls Scot., XXI. 360. David Murray, ane of the kingis majesties maisteris of stabill.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xxv. 5. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 139. ’Twas thought the King distributed the best part of the horses in his stable.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 463. The stable yields a stercoraceous heap.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xviii. I shall choose a better stable for my horse than the Kelpie’s quicksand.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xvi. The whole house hurried away into an empty stable where the show stood.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 126. When they ran To loose him [a dog] at the stables.
b. See AUGEAN stable.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 28 Jan., 9/1. Because the financiers … have set themselves to clear up the stable, and put things upon a more honest and reputable footing.
1909. Sieveking, Mem. F. W. Newman, xiv. 301. Here is indeed the mind of a modern Hercules in its strong rational suggestions as to how this particular ‘stable’ must be swept out.
c. To talk stable: to talk of ‘horsy’ matters.
1855. Smedley, H. Coverdale, viii. We shall have him on our hands, talking stable, and wishing we were dogs and horses, for a whole week!
2. A collection (of horses) belonging to one stable.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 373. If you take learning and knowledge from among men, what doe you else make of a publique bodye, but a stable of Asses.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, April an. 1646. He then shew’d us a stable of brave horses.
1776. in Peterson Mag., Jan., 60/1. The Congress seem to stumble at every step. I do not mean one or two of the cattle, but the whole stable.
3. An establishment where race-horses are trained; a racing-stable. Also, the horses belonging to a particular racing-stable; the proprietors and staff of such an establishment.
1810. T. Holcroft’s Mem., xvi. (1856), 62. As the prize to be obtained was great, the whole stable was on the alert.
1865. Lever, Luttrell, lvi. These were painful reflections, and made him think that very probably he had ‘been backing the wrong stable.’
1868. Field, 11 July, 29/2. De Vere disappointed her stable very much by being the first beaten.
1884. H. Smart, From Post to Finish, vi. William Greyson’s is not a large stable; still he has a tolerable good string.
4. Mil. Used in pl. for: Duty or work in the stables; also the bugle-call for this duty, stable-call.
1885. Morning Post, 5 Feb., 2/2 (Cass.). They seem always at stables, on parade, or out doing field-firing or outpost duty.
1908. Animal Management, (Vet. Departm., War Office), 83. The usual hours for stables at Home are [etc.]. Ibid. As soon as this is done ‘Stables’ should sound, when every man should be with his horse. Ibid., 84. At evening stables the horses are to be watered.
5. attrib. and Comb.: simple attrib., as stable-bail (BAIL sb.3 4), broom, brush, bucket, † chamber, -court, -door, † fee (Sc.), fittings, -fork, -gate, guard (Mil.), -jacket, lantern, -litter, loft, management, people, plank, post, stuff, suit, -wench, work; stable-like adj.; locative, as stable-born, adj.
1737. Hoppus, Salmon’s Country Build. Estim. (ed. 2), 103. Pins, Hooks, Chains, &c. to *Stable-Bails.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, X. clx. A *stable-born and manger-cradeled Thing.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xviii. A bed as hard as a *stable broom.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4535, *Stable brushes.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, i. But that’s not nigh the full o’ the *stable-bucket!
1582. Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 45. In the *stable chaumbre. In the chaumbre within the stable; one bedsteade [etc.].
1816. Gentl. Mag., LXXXVI. I. 38. On the right, the chapel, *stable-court,… &c.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, iv. Pen … was presently heard riding out of the stable-court.
1529. Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871), 6. At thai tak na *stabill fee fra the personis that lugis with thame.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6106, *Stable fittings.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. vi. The very Ostlers have *stable-forks and flails.
1602. Narcissus (1893), 264. It is too late, When steede is stolne to shutt the *stable gate [cf. STABLE DOOR.]
1908. Animal Management, (Vet. Departm., War Office), 84. A *stable guard should invariably be posted while the men are away from stables.
1884. H. Smart, From Post to Finish, vi. A … lad, attired in a grey tweed *stable-jacket, moleskin trousers,… and a tweed cap.
1892. Zangwill, Childr. Ghetto, i. The *stable-like doors of the kitchen.
1808. J. C. Curwen, Econ. Feeding Stock, 242. Fresh *stable-litter being made use of.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 357/2. He allowed me … to sleep in the *stable-loft.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, II. I. ix. 349. Clothing, Dressing, and *Stable Management.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., IV. 195. He met one of the *stable people.
1595. Shaks., John, V. ii. 140. To crowch in litter of your *stable plankes.
1781. J. Ripley, Sel. Orig. Lett., 101. I would have … tied both your hands together with a strong halter to one of the *stable-posts.
1551–2. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 93. And the *stable stuffe and apparell for horsses to be delivered to thands of … our … officers of our stable.
1849. Bentley’s Misc., XXVI. 465. Stable-boys … at eight guineas a year, and a *stable-suit.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, i. 223. A plump-arm’d Ostleress and a *stable wench Came running at the call.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XII. 193/1. *Stable work should commence early.
b. Special comb.: stable-boy, a boy or man employed in or about a stable; stable-call Mil., a bugle-call to stables (see 4); stable-cleaner (see quot.); stable companion, a horse from the same stable; stable-dung, dung from stables as distinguished from that collected in the fold-yard or in the streets; stable-fly (see quots.); stable groom = GROOM sb.1 5; stable-help, helper = HELPER 2 spec.; stable-horse (see quot.); stable hours, the fixed times for work in the stable; stable-keeper, one who keeps a stable; one who provides stable-accommodation for horses; stable-lad = stable-boy; stable-language, the parlance of those who have the care and training of horses; stableman, one who is employed in a stable to groom, feed and otherwise look after the horses; stable-meal [MAIL sb.2] Sc., ‘the liquor consumed in an inn by farmers by way of remunerating the innkeeper for accommodating their horses during the day.’ (Jamieson, Suppl.); stable room, accommodation for horses or a horse in a stable; stabling; stablewards adv., towards the stable or stables; stable-yard, the yard attached to a stable. Also STABLE DOOR.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., v. (1745), 66. Deliver your Horses to the *Stable-boy, and let him gallop them to the next Pond.
1898. J. Arch, Life, ii. 33. A wealthy banker … took me into his stables, made me a sort of stable-boy.
1889. F. Remington, in Century Mag., April, 900. Will you go down to *stable-call and pick out a mount?
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stable-cleaner, a manure-drag for removing used litter from stables.
1868. Field, 11 July, 29/3. Chatelherault winning … by a head from his *stable companion.
1763. Museum Rust., I. 257. Lime is a much sweeter manure than *stable-dung.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 65. Street manure … has been used in forcing gardens as a substitute for tanners’ bark and stable-dung.
1862. T. W. Harris, Insects Injur. Vegetation (ed. 3), 16. The stinging *stable-fies (Stomoxys).
1884–5. Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), II. 430. A very common and wide-spread species is the stable-fly, Stomoxys calcitrans.… The larvæ live in fresh horse manure.
1910. Encycl. Brit., X. 584/1. The Stomoxys calcitrans, or stable-fly:… Muscina stabulans, another stable-fly.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., II. 120. Now, *stabyll grom, shortly bryng forth away The best horse.
1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, II. ii. And stable-grooms [have] reacht to some fair ones chambers.
1836. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xxii. (1862), 105. Give up blood horses to them that can afford to keep *stable-helps to tend ’em.
1807. E. S. Barrett, Rising Sun, III. 30. Mrs. Secondhand … sent one of the *stable-helpers to fetch a chair.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., *Stable horse, Ind. That part of Tippoo Sultaun’s cavalry, which was best armed, accoutred, and most regularly disciplined.
1810. T. Holcroft’s Mem., xii. (1856), 37. [The groom] was so attentive to *stable-hours, that … he was always to be found.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 352. The face, eyes, and nostrils of each horse are to be washed with a sponge and sea-water, at the regular stable-hours.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/2. *Stabul kepar, or hors kepar, stabularius.
1811. Regul. & Ord. Army, 161. The Hay and Straw for Horses in Quarters … are furnished by the Stable-Keepers, &c. on whom they are billeted.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, II. I. ix. 352/2. Mischief … if not prevented will be indulged in by the *stable-lad towards his charge.
1856. Whyte-Melville, Kate Coventry, xv. They were, what is termed in *stable language, very much above themselves.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., i. (1745), 32. Get the Cook, the House-maid, the *Stable-men, etc. … to stand in his Way to the Hall in a Line.
1786. Burns, To Auld Mare, viii. When thou an’ I were young an’ skeigh An’ *stable-meals at fairs were dreigh.
1585. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 150. To my brother … sufficient hay for his horse … and *stable roome in my stable.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., When there is stable-room enough, partitions are to be made for several horses to stand in.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., v. [He] then lounged *stablewards.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3899/4. Enquire at the *Stable Yard in St. Alban’s street.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxiii. In the vicinity of the stable-yard … sat Mr. Weller senior.
