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.)
Defn: The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff. [Obs.] Stave jointer, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.
STAVE
Stave, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Staved or Stove (; p. pr. & vb. n.
Staving.] Etym: [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 guilties, 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.