stave

American  

[steyv] / steɪv /

noun

staves plural

1. one of the thin, narrow, shaped pieces of wood that form the sides of a cask, tub, or similar vessel.

2. a stick, rod, pole, or the like.

3. a rung of a ladder, chair, etc.

4. Prosody.

   1. a verse or stanza of a poem or song.

   2. the alliterating sound in a line of verse, as the w- sound in wind in the willows.

5. Music. staff.

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verb (used with object)

staved, stove, staving

1. to break in a stave or staves of (a cask or barrel) so as to release the wine, liquor, or other contents.

2. to release (wine, liquor, etc.) by breaking the cask or barrel.

3. to break or crush (something) inward (often followed byin ).

4. to break (a hole) in, especially in the hull of a boat.

5. to break to pieces; splinter; smash.

6. to furnish with a stave or staves.

7. to beat with a stave or staff.

verb (used without object)

staved, stove, staving

1. to become staved in, as a boat; break in or up.

2. to move along rapidly.

verb phrase

1. stave off

   1. to put, ward, or keep off, as by force or evasion.

   2. to prevent in time; forestall.

      He wasn't able to stave off bankruptcy.

stave British  

/ steɪv /

noun

1. any one of a number of long strips of wood joined together to form a barrel, bucket, boat hull, etc

2. any of various bars, slats, or rods, usually of wood, such as a rung of a ladder or a crosspiece bracing the legs of a chair

3. any stick, staff, etc

4. a stanza or verse of a poem

5. music

   1. an individual group of five lines and four spaces used in staff notation

   2. another word for staff 1

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verb

1. (often foll by in) to break or crush (the staves of a boat, barrel, etc) or (of the staves of a boat) to be broken or crushed

2. to burst or force (a hole in something)

3. (tr) to provide (a ladder, chair, etc) with a stave or staves

4. (tr) to sprain (a finger, toe, etc)

Synonym Usage

See verse.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unstaved
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• staves
  plural

Etymology

Origin of stave

First recorded in 1125–75; (noun) Middle English, back formation from staves; (verb) derivative of the noun

Explanation

A stave is the crosspiece between the legs of a chair or a wooden slat forming the side of a barrel. In music, it's the five lines you write notes on. Stave comes from the word staff, as in a walking stick. You're most likely to encounter the word stave if you're learning woodworking. If someone "staves in" a door, they've broken a hole in it. You also might hear the idiom "stave off," which means to hold off for a short time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stave staves staved staving stove

Inside the secretive lab shaping America’s retail landscape: At a Florida lab few have ever seen, a team of researchers is trying to stave off a purported epidemic of shoplifting.

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026

Public health officials, however, have advice for residents to stave off illness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

The reforms were widely seen as a desperate, eleventh-hour bid to stave off economic collapse.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

Or had he resorted to Botox in his quest to stave off signs of decline and old age?

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

Nigro realized that Bobby was trying to stave off what he feared would be an inevitable loss.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

For many Americans taking a weight-loss drug, Thanksgiving presents a conundrum: Take the weekly dose that staves off hunger, or push it off so they can feast?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025

"In our model, the barrel staves spread out in steps," he says, "each step representing a new limiting factor that becomes active as the cell grows faster."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025

France's Emmanuel Macron was on Friday due to pick a head of government tasked with pulling the country out of a political gridlock, in a move that staves off fresh elections for now.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025

It means not all the cuts will go ahead and it staves off effective bankruptcy, but it also saddles Havering with high debt repayments for the next 20 years.

From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2024

With wild yells very uncharacteristic of peaceful mice, the friends seized their staves and charged out, fired with new zeal.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

An infusion of new funds approved by Congress this year and a waiver of eligibility procedures have staved off a potential crisis that would have left 4,200 back on the street.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson at least staved off humiliation with a battling stand of 75, ended when Atkinson was out just before lunch.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

Powell’s calm but forceful defense of Fed independence likely staved off larger attacks on the institution and won him admiration and awards, like the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award.

From MarketWatch ● May 10, 2026

To be safe, Jews must understand their community’s own history, and embrace the American values that have staved off the worst antisemitism in the U.S. for 250 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

I saw in this the reason for my being staved off so long and the reason for my late guardian’s declining to commit himself to the formal knowledge of such a scheme.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

The company has also reportedly been in discussions about potential concessions in the hope of satisfying Bonta’s concerns and staving off a lawsuit.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026

After staving off a weekend collapse, McIlroy had dodged Scheffler, himself a two-time champion, and became only the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters titles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

The Spaniard also had to dig deep to level at 1-1, staving off three break points himself.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2025

Thames Water has won a crucial High Court battle to secure a £3bn rescue loan, staving off the prospect of the debt-laden company coming under government control.

From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2025

Besides staving off economic collapse, the dams are ideologically beguiling to the family that runs the country.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

In the early 1970s, Stephen Hawking and other researchers discovered surprising connections between the laws of thermodynamics, which describe familiar processes such as heating water on a stove, and the behavior of black holes.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 13, 2026

The “Charlie’s Angels” star proceeded to pose next to the petite kitchen, which comes complete with a stove and sink.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026

Cooking for hours before a burning gas stove on extremely hot days has worsened an existing heart ailment, Agarwal says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

Habiba's day starts at around 4:00 am, when she gets up to pray before preparing breakfast with her daughters on a wood-fired stove.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

Then he raised his lips, bared his teeth, and growled at the stove.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

Related Words

• anticipate
• avert
• avoid
• counteract
• foil
• forestall
• halt
• preclude
• put an end to
• rule out
• thwart