[This is a MPIWG MPDL language technology service] ![]() |
Staff (n.) A long piece of wood; a stick; the long handle of an instrument or weapon; a pole or srick, used for many purposes; as, a surveyor's staff; the staff of a spear or pike.
Staff (n.) A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds.
Staff (n.) A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff.
Staff (n.) A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
Staff (n.) The round of a ladder.
Staff (n.) A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
Staff (n.) The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called stave.
Staff (n.) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
Staff (n.) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
Staff (n.) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution. See Etat Major.
Staff (n.) Hence: A body of assistants serving to carry into effect the plans of a superintendant or manager; as, the staff of a newspaper.
Stave (n.) 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.
Stave (n.) One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.
Stave (n.) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
Stave (n.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
Stave (n.) 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.
Stave (n.) To push, as with a staff; -- with off.
Stave (n.) To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.
Stave (n.) To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
Stave (n.) To furnish with staves or rundles.
Stave (n.) 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.
Stave (v. i.) To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.