STAIDNESS
Staid"ness, n.
Defn: The quality or state of being staid; seriousness; steadiness; sedateness; regularity; — the opposite of wildness, or Ant: levity. If sometimes he appears too gray, yet a secret gracefulness of youth accompanies his writings, though the staidness and sobriety of age wanting. Dryden.
Syn. — Sobriety; gravity; steadiness; regularity; constancy; firmness; stability; sedateness.
STAIL
Stail, n.
Defn: A handle, as of a mop; a stale. [Eng.]
STAIN
Stain, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stained; p. pr. & vb. n. Staining.] Etym:
[Abbrev. fr. distain.]
1. To discolor by the application of foreign matter; to make foul; to spot; as, to stain the hand with dye; armor stained with blood.
2. To color, as wood, glass, paper, cloth, or the like, by processess affecting, chemically or otherwise, the material itself; to tinge with a color or colors combining with, or penetrating, the substance; to dye; as, to stain wood with acids, colored washes, paint rubbed in, etc.; to stain glass.
3. To spot with guilt or infamy; to bring reproach on; to blot; to soil; to tarnish. Of honor void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity, Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained. Milton.
4. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. She stains the ripest virgins of her age. Beau. & Fl. That did all other beasts in beauty stain. Spenser. Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, — often used for making ornament windows.