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A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff. Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero brave. Wordsworth.

pl. of Staff. "Banners, scarves and staves." R. Browning. Also (stavz),

A kind of larkspur (Delphinium Staphysagria), and its seeds, which are violently purgative and emetic. They are used as a parasiticide, and in the East for poisoning fish.

A tall tree (Simaruba amara) growing in tropical America. It is one of the trees which yields quassia.

A peculiar bronze adz, used in prehistoric Europe about the middle of the bronze age. Dawkins.

A brace used to join two or more staves.

round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads.

tess, accommodate us with a bedstaff. B. Jonson. Say there is no virtue in cudgels and bedstaves. Brome.

A small wooden vessel made of staves and hoops, like a tub. [Prov. Eng.]

To fracture the bilge of, or stave in the bottom of (a ship or other vessel).

To stave in; to bilge. [Obs.] Holland.

or lines, which are to be taken together; thus, boll, bowl; or, in music, used to connect staves.

short rope with flat hooks at each end, for hoisting casks or barrels by the ends of the staves.

A charge or bearing supposed to represent the precious stone. It has eight scepters or staves radiating from a common center. Called also escarbuncle.

A barrel-shaped vessel made of staves headings, and hoops, usually fitted together so as to hold liquids. It may be larger or smaller than a barrel.

The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.

A stave for a cask. [Eng.] Halliwell.

small furnace or iron cage to hold fire for charring the inside of a cask, and making the staves flexible. Knight.

e of a religious order, so called because its members bore the sign of the cross on their staves and habits; -- called also crossed friar and crouched friar.

Pertaining to, or derived from, the larkspur; specifically, relating to the stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria).