STEW

A small pond or pool where fish are kept for the table; a vivarium. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. Evelyn.

An artificial bed of oysters. [Local, U.S.]

To boil slowly, or with the simmering or moderate heat; to seethe; to cook in a little liquid, over a gentle fire, without boiling; as, to stew meat; to stew oysters; to stew apples.

To be seethed or cooked in a slow, gentle manner, or in heat and moisture.

A place of stewing or seething; a place where hot bathes are furnished; a hothouse. [Obs.] As burning Ætna from his boiling stew Doth belch out flames. Spenser. The Lydians were inhibited by Cyrus to use any armor, and give themselves to baths and stews. Abp. Abbot.

A brothel; -- usually in the plural. Bacon. South. There be that hate harlots, and never were at the stews. Aschman.

A prostitute. [Obs.] Sir A. Weldon.

A dish prepared by stewing; as, a stewof pigeons.

A state of agitating excitement; a state of worry; confusion; as, to be in a stew. [Colloq.]