n. [ Dan. paalstav. ] A peculiar bronze adz, used in prehistoric Europe about the middle of the bronze age. Dawkins. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Staff, and corresponding to the pl. staves. See Staff. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let us chant a passing stave
In honor of that hero brave. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or printed; the staff{ 7 }. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Stave jointer, a machine for dressing the edges of staves. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Staved r Stove p. pr. & vb. n. Staving. ] [ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off. [ 1913 Webster ]

The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project. [ 1913 Webster ]

And answered with such craft as women use,
Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance
That breaks upon them perilously. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask. [ 1913 Webster ]

All the wine in the city has been staved. Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To furnish with staves or rundles. Knolles. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run. [ 1913 Webster ]

To stave and tail, in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to hold back the dog by the tail. Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. of Staff. “Banners, scarves and staves.” R. Browning. Also pl. of Stave. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Corrupted from NL. staphis agria, Gr. stafi`s dried grape + 'a`grios wild. ] (Bot.) A kind of larkspur (Delphinium Staphysagria), and its seeds, which are violently purgative and emetic. They are used as a parasiticide, and in the East for poisoning fish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A tall tree (Simaruba amara) growing in tropical America. It is one of the trees which yields quassia. [ 1913 Webster ]