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itions; the drama, as acted or exhibited. Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope. Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. C. Sprague.

One who prepares a play for production. He arranges the details of the stage settings, the business to be used, all stage effects, and instructs the actors, excepting usually the star, in the general interpretation of their parts.

Nervousness felt before an audience.

One in control of the stage during the production of a play. He directs the stage hands, property man, etc., has charge of all details behind the curtain, except the acting, and has a general oversight of the actors. Sometimes he is also the stage director.

Fascinated by the stage; seized by a passionate desire to become an actor.

A coach that runs regularly from one stage, station, or place to another, for the conveyance of passengers.

One who drives a stagecoach.

A house where a stage regularly stops for passengers or a relay of horses.

Pertaining to a stage; becoming the theater; theatrical. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

A dramatic or theatrical entertainment. Dryden.

An actor on the stage; one whose occupation is to represent characters on the stage; as, Garrick was a celebrated stageplayer.

One who has long acted on the stage of life; a practitioner; a person of experience, or of skill derived from long experience. "You will find most of the old stagers still stationary there." Sir W. Scott.

Exhibition on the stage. [Obs.]

Adjustment. [R.]

A toll paid for the privilege of taking up ballast in a port or harbor.

Expense; cost. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A duty or tribute payable to the king's foresters.

tipulations of any kind, on the performance of which the person is to be released. Your hostages I have, so have you mine; And we shall talk before we fight. Shak. He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune. Bacon.

A duty exacted, in some fairs or markets, for the right to carry things where one will. [Obs.]

aw to be paid for the conveyance of a letter or other mailable matter by a public post. Postage stamp, a government stamp required to be put upon articles sent by mail in payment of the postage, esp. an adhesive stamp issued and sold for that purpose.