[A back-formation from staves pl. of STAFF sb.]
I. A stick of wood (and senses thence derived).
1. Each of the thin, narrow, shaped pieces of wood which, when placed together side by side and hooped, collectively form the side of a cask, tub or similar vessel. (Cf. STAFF sb.1 14 f.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxviii. (1495), 934. A tonne is an holowe vessel made of many bordes and tonne staues craftly bounde togyder.
c. 1580. in Eng. Hist. Rev., July (1914), 518. For … pipestaves and hoghed staves.
1613. Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), I. 26. Butt staves and hogshead staves.
1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 79. All sorts of Timber, Plank, and Staves for Cask.
1769. E. Bancroft, Nat. Hist. Guiana, 85. This quality renders it suitable for staves for sugar hogsheads.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. i. One Citoyen has wrought out the scheme of a wooden cannon…. It is to be made of staves, by the coopers.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. of Farm, III. 900. [The milking-pail] is made light, of thin oak staves bound with iron hoops.
1906. T. Sinton, Poetry of Badenoch, 21. Presenting him with the milk-cog, she assured him that so long as a stave of it remained in the possession of his family, no evil influence could affect their cattle.
b. Phrases. To ding in staves: to break in pieces. To fall into staves: to fall to pieces. To take a stave out of one’s cog (cf. COGUE 1).
1786. Burns, Author’s Cry, ix. To see his poor, auld Mither’s pot, Thus dung in staves.
1889. H. Johnston, Chron. Glenbuckie, xvi. 179. I must either get my income augmented or take a ‘stave out of my cog,’ as the saying is.
1895. W. C. Fraser, Whaups of Durley, ii. 17. ‘A dune man,’ the villagers said, ‘fa’in into staves,’ and become quite unable to control a herd of boisterous children.
2. A rod, bar, pole or the like.
a. A rung (of a ladder); a cross-bar to the legs of a chair. Now dial. (Cf. STAFF sb.1 14 a, b.)
c. 1175. Twelfth Cent. Hom. (E.E.T.S.), 80. He bið ilic þam men þe … astihð … uppon þære læddrestæfæ … & wule þonne stiȝan ufor butan stafæ [= Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, I. 12 Be þære hlæddre stapum … buton stapum].
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Stave, a step or round of a ladder.
† b. A pump-rod. (Cf. STAFF sb.1 9 b.) Obs.
1750. Blanckley, Naval Expos., 124. Stave or Spear (Pump Hand) is a long Rod of Iron with an Eye at the upper End, which Hooks to the Brake.
c. A bar or pin (of a trundle).
1834–6. Barlow, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 102/1. The teeth of pinions are also distinguished by the term leaves, and those of the trundle by staves or rounds. Ibid., 102/2. The centre of the stave A … half the diameter of the stave.
1869. Rankine, Machinery & Millwork, 137. When two wheels gear together, and one of them has cylindrical pins (called staves) for teeth. Ibid. Draw curves parallel to and within the epicycloids, at a distance from them equal to the radius of a stave.
d. (See quot.)
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 372. The laths [for plastering] generally used in London are made of fir, imported from Norway, the Baltic, and America, in pieces, called staves.
e. A graduated rod used in levelling. (Cf. STAFF sb.1 10.)
1838. Rep. 8th Meeting of Brit. Assoc., Notices 154. Description of an Improved Leveling Stave, for Subterranean as well as Surface Leveling. By Thomas Sopwith.
† f. U.S. ? A pig (of lead).
1683. in C. H. Hunt, Life E. Livingston (1864), i. 6–7. [For land purchased from the Indians R. Livingston agreed] to pay to the said Owners these following Goods…; Six Guns, fifty pounds of Powder, Fifty staves of Lead [etc.].
g. The shaft of a lance: = STAFF sb.1 3 a.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, III. XIII. viii. 43. Stave after slave was broken, but the unknown knights still challenged every one to ride his best.
h. = BOWSTAFF. arch.
1891. Conan Doyle, White Company, xv. ’Tis the master-bowyer’s rede:… Every stave well nocked. Every string well locked.
II. A bundle (of certain things).
3. A bundle of teasel-heads. = STAFF sb.1 16.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 147. The common Produce is about 160 Bundles or Staves upon an Acre, which they sell for about one Shilling a Stave.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 785. By some, before forming them into packs, they are done up into what are termed staves, by means of split sticks.
4. ? Anglo-Irish. (See quot.) rare–1.
1861. O. Curry, Lect. MS. Materials, 13. The next book … is that called Cin Droma Snechta.… The word Cin … is explained in our ancient Glossaries as signifying a stave of five sheets of vellum. Ibid., 196. The workmen … carried off several loose leaves, and even whole staves of the book.
III. (Cf. STAFF sb. II.)
5. A ‘verse’ or stanza of a poem, song, etc. = STAFF sb.1 19 c.
1659. J. C[aryl], Peter’s Pattern (1680), 3. After they had sang the two first Staves of the Tenth Hymn of Larners Twelve Songs of Sion.
1709. Hearne, Collect., 24 Dec. (O.H.S.), II. 331. In most of the Churches … the 3 first Staves of the 69th Psalm were sung.
1757. Mrs. Griffith, Lett. Henry & Frances (1767), IV. 233. That Posterity may bless us, should be one of the Staves of the Litany.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 662. The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce. And eke did roar right merrily, two staves, Sung to the praise and glory of King George!
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, V. end. Last, o’er the warrior’s closing grave, Rung the full choir in choral stave.
1823. Byron, Island, II. v. One long-cherish’d ballad’s simple stave.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxix. ‘Cheer up, captain!’ cried Hugh, when they had roared themselves out of breath. ‘Another stave!’
1858. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. lii. 285. Britannicus chanted a lyric stave on the sorrows of the discrowned and disinherited.
1875. Lowell, Spenser, Prose Wks. 1890, IV. 305, note. Spenser’s innovation lies … in valuing the stave more than any of the single verses that compose it.
b. Phrase. To tip (one) a stave: to sing a song to (one); jocularly, to send a line to. Cf. TIP v.4 1.
1838. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. II. xxiii. Jist tip a stave to the Governor of Nova Scotia, order him to inquire out the author.
1886. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., II. x. ‘Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave,’ cried one voice.
6. Mus. A set of lines for musical notation: = STAFF sb.1 20.
c. 1800. Busby, Dict. Mus. (1811).
1842, 1873. [see STAFF sb.1 20].
1875. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms.
7. quasi-arch. An alphabetic letter. (Cf. RUNE-STAVE and STAFF sb.1 18.)
1866–7. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. Introd. p. x. Many staves are more or less the same in both [Runic and Roman].
1896. A. Austin, England’s Darling, IV. i. Ask them that read the staves. This crimson-dawn, The beechen slips on the white cloth spelled out The runes of death.
IV. 8. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as stave-hole, teeth; stave-wise adv.; b. objective, as stave-cutting, -making; c. special comb.: stave bolt, a log for cutting into staves; stave-rime [cf. G. stabreim], alliteration; an alliterating word in a line of alliterative poetry; staverow rare, an alphabet; stavesman, an official bearing a stave or wand; stave-tankard, an antique tankard formed of staves of wood (Cent. Dict., 1891); stavewood, a name given to several trees furnishing wood suitable for cask-staves (see quots.).
1878. Lumberman’s Gaz., 26 Jan. Large quantities of *stave bolts are being hauled in.
1840. Mechanics’ Mag., XXXIII. 497. Taylor’s Improved *Stave-cutting Machine.
1901. J. Black’s Carp. & Builder, Scaffolding, 34. The sides … in which the points for centre of *stave-holes [of a ladder] are shown.
1874. Spons’ Dict. Engin., VIII. 2917. *Stave-making and Cask Machinery.
1888. Academy, 14 Jan., 27/1. The law of the alliterative verse does not require us to adopt the reading of the Dublin MS., as three *stave-rimes are a sufficient number for a line.
1866–7. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. Introd. p. x. These particular staves died out, and assumed other forms in the later Runic *staverow.
1786. J. Smith, in Mem. J. E. Smith (1832), I. 172. The area of the square [on election-day] was crowded with *stavesmen and spectators: the candidates rode as usual.
1834–6. Barlow, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 103/2. Draw the line AB, joining the centres of the *stave teeth.
1659. Torriano, Dict. Ital. & Eng., A-fusóne, adv., made *stave-wise.
1778. W. Wright, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. (1790), II. 76. Quassia Simaruba.… This tree is known in Jamaica by the names of Mountain Damson, Bitter Damson and *Stave-wood.
1864. Grisebach, Flora Brit. W. Ind., 788. Stave-wood: Simaruba amara.
1889. Maiden, Usef. Pl. Austral., 542. Flindersia Schottiana … Stavewood.
1889. Century Dict., Stavewood,… a tall stout tree, Sterculia fœtida, of the East Indies, eastern Africa, and Australia.
