Now chiefly Sc. [a. OF. estiver, otherwise adopted as STEEVE v.2] trans. To compress and stow (cargo) in a ship’s hold. Also transf. to pack tightly; to crowd (with things or people). Also with up.
a. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1169. In botes þai gun him stiue And drouȝ him to þe land.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 15. You would … admire if you saw them stiue it in their ships: enforcing a sacke as big as a wooll-packe into a roome at the first too narrow for your arme.
a. 1639. Wotton, Parallel Essex & Buckhm. (1641), 7. His chamber being commonly stived with friends or Suitors of one kinde or other.
1659. T. Philipott, Vill. Cant., 2. Four Syllables … all confusedly shuffled and stiv’d into this one word Gavelkind.
1781. in Hone’s Every-day Bk., II. 836. Corn [shall] be brought fairly to market, not stived up in granaries.
1844. ‘J. Slick,’ High Life N. York, II. 13. The cabin was so stived up with onion barrels … that I hadn’t no room to fix up in.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 203. The locust meat is stived in leathern sacks.
