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A heavy staff of wood, usually tapering, and wielded the hand; a weapon; a cudgel. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Rome and her rats are at the point of battle. Shak.

A grooved sound or staff used for directing instruments, as lithontriptic forceps, etc.; a director.

er; to check; to counteract; to restrain; to regulate; to govern; to overpower. Give me a staff of honor for mine age, But not a scepter to control the world. Shak. I feel my virtue struggling in my soul: But stronger passion does its power control. Dryden.

Any implement having a bent or crooked end. Especially: (a) The staff used by a shepherd, the hook of which serves to hold a runaway sheep. (b) A bishop's staff of office. Cf. Pastoral stafu. He left his crook, he left his flocks. Prior.

The pastoral staff of a bishop (also of an archbishop, being the symbol of his office as a shepherd of the flock of God.

A staff with a crosspiece at the head, to be placed under the arm or shoulder, to support the lame or infirm in walking. I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other. Shak. Rhyme is a crutch that lifts the weak alone. H. Smith.

A clown; a low rustic; a dolt. [Obs.] The slavering cudden, propped upon his staff. Dryden.

A staff used in cudgel play, shorter than the quarterstaff, and wielded with one hand; hence, any heavy stick used as a weapon. He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. Bunyan. Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels. -- To cross the cudgels, to fo…

Somewhat dead, dull, or lifeless; deathlike. The lips put on a deadish paleness. A. Stafford.

With decreasing volume of sound; -- a direction to performers, either written upon the staff (abbreviated Dec., or Decresc.), or indicated by the sign.

A line or space of the staff.

a gradually diminishing manner; with abatement of tone; decrescendo; -- expressed on the staff by Dim., or Dimin., or the sign.

ring from a lower place to a higher; to lift up; to raise; as, to elevate a weight, a flagstaff, etc.

n upright or perpendicular position; to set upright; to raise; as, to erect a pole, a flagstaff, a monument, etc.

The staff of an army, including all officers above the rank of colonel, also, all adjutants, inspectors, quartermasters, commissaries, engineers, ordnance officers, paymasters, physicians, signal officers, judge advocates; also, the noncommissioned assistants of the above officers.

upposed to determine the course of human life. They are represented, one as holding the distaff, a second as spinning, and the third as cutting off the thread.

dicate nationality, party, etc., or to give or ask information; -- commonly attached to a staff to be waved by the wind; a standard; a banner; an ensign; the colors; as, the national flag; a military or a naval flag.

An instrument for threshing or beating grain from the ear by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a stouter and shorter pole or club, called a swipe, is so hung as to swing freely. His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn. Milton.

The length of an extended flag from its staff; sometimes, the length from the "union" to the extreme end.

Any sight or reading of the leveling staff, except the backsight; any sight or bearing taken by a compass or theodolite in a forward direction.