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A dramatic or theatrical entertainment. Dryden.

e occupation is to represent characters on the stage; as, Garrick was a celebrated stageplayer.

A flight of stairs or steps; a staircase. "A rude and narrow stairway." Moore.

other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship. In stays, or Hove in stays (Naut.), in the act or situation of staying, or going about from one tack to another. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Stay holes…

Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid. Bacon. Pope.

Staidly. See Staidly. [R.]

Staidness. [Archaic] W. Whately.

One who upholds or supports that which props; one who, or that which, stays, stops, or restrains; also, colloquially, a horse, man, etc., that has endurance, an a race.

A lace for fastening stays.

Without stop or delay. Mir. for Mag.

One whose occupation is to make stays.

The European starling. [Prov. Eng.]

Any sail extended on a stay.

A remora, -- fabled to stop ships by attaching itself to them.

A rate of motion through the water sufficient to render a vessel governable by the helm.

The movement of a ship backward, or with her stern foremost.

Any one of numerous rays of the family Dasyatidæ, syn. Trygonidæ, having one or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines, on the whiplike tail, capable of inflicting severe wounds. Some species reach a large size, and some, esp., on the American Pacific coast, are very destructive to oysters.

A distemper in hawks.

One who conceals himself board of a vessel about to leave port, or on a railway train, in order to obtain a free passage.

Immediately; without loss of time; without delay. He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi. . . . And straightway the damsel arose. Mark v. 41,42.