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

A stand, or case, for pen and ink. I bequeath to Dean Swift, Esq., my large silver standish. Swift.

An ancient high court exercising jurisdiction in certain cases, mainly criminal, which sat without the intervention of a jury. It consisted of the king's council, or of the privy council only with the addition of certain judges. It could proceed on mere rumor or examine witnesses; it could apply torture. It was abolish…

in gross; to represent fully in words; to narrate; to recite; as, to state the facts of a case, one's opinion, etc. To state it. To assume state or dignity. [Obs.] "Rarely dressed up, and taught to state it." Beau. & Fl.

ng, or presenting, orally or in paper; as, to interrupt a speaker in the statement of his case.

Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached.

teristic of certain varieties of religious ecstasy, or by capillary congestion, as in the case of drunkards.

e holy water, seven shillings; which, by the canon, must be of marble or metal, and in no case of brick. Fuller.

auses a suspension of breathing, of the passage of contents, or of the circulation, as in cases of hernia.

sh bean. -- To have two strings to one's bow, to have a means or expedient in reserve in case the one employed fails.

ted; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb. The subject of a proposition is that concerning which anything is affirmed or denied. I. Watts.

th a writ of subpoena; to command attendance in court by a legal writ, under a penalty in case of disobedience.

abate; as, the sea subsides; the tumults of war will subside; the fever has subsided. "In cases of danger, pride and envy naturally subside." C. Middleton.

erwise modified by some kind of obstruction in the oral or the nasal passage, and in some cases with a mixture of breath sound; -- a term introduced by Dr. James Rush in 1833. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§155, 199-202.

er; the amount; the substance; compendium; as, this is the sum of all the evidence in the case; this is the sum and substance of his objections.

the doctrine which denies the agency of any other than physical or natural causes in the case. [Written also supranaturalism.]

ally, a person employed not for regular service, but only to fill the place of another in case of need; specifically, in theaters, a person who is not a regular actor, but is employed to appear in a stage spectacle.

A writ of command to suspend the powers of an officer in certain cases, or to stay proceedings under another writ. Blackstone.

A verbal noun; or (according to C.F.Becker), a case of the infinitive mood ending in -um and -u, that in -um being sometimes called the former supine, and that in -u the latter supine.

Capable of being supposed, or imagined to exist; as, that is not a supposable case. -- Sup*pos"a*ble*ness, n. -- Sup*pos"a*bly, adv.