n. [ OF. estage, F. étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L. stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Static. ] 1. A floor or story of a house. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited. [ 1913 Webster ]

Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. C. Sprague. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or career; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs; as, politicians must live their lives on the public stage. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring. Miton. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of ten miles. [ 1913 Webster ]

A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road. Jeffrey. [ 1913 Webster ]

He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages. Smiles. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. A large vehicle running from station to station for the accommodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus. “A parcel sent you by the stage.” Cowper. [ Obsolescent ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I went in the sixpenny stage. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. (Biol.) One of several marked phases or periods in the development and growth of many animals and plants; as, the larval stage; pupa stage; zoea stage. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stage box, a box close to the stage in a theater. --
Stage carriage, a stagecoach. --
Stage door, the actors' and workmen's entrance to a theater. --
Stage lights, the lights by which the stage in a theater is illuminated. --
Stage micrometer, a graduated device applied to the stage of a microscope for measuring the size of an object. --
Stage wagon, a wagon which runs between two places for conveying passengers or goods. --
Stage whisper, a loud whisper, as by an actor in a theater, supposed, for dramatic effect, to be unheard by one or more of his fellow actors, yet audible to the audience; an aside. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To exhibit upon a stage, or as upon a stage; to display publicly. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A coach that runs regularly from one stage, station, or place to another, for the conveyance of passengers. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Stagecoachmen One who drives a stagecoach. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Theat.) One who prepares a play for production. He arranges the details of the stage settings, the business to be used, all stage effects, and instructs the actors, excepting usually the star, in the general interpretation of their parts. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. Nervousness felt before an audience. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A house where a stage regularly stops for passengers or a relay of horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to a stage; becoming the theater; theatrical. [ Obs. ] Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Theat.) One in control of the stage during the production of a play. He directs the stage hands, property man, etc., has charge of all details behind the curtain, except the acting, and has a general oversight of the actors. Sometimes he is also the stage director. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A dramatic or theatrical entertainment. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]