Definition of stave in English:

1A vertical wooden post or plank in a building or other structure.

1. 1.1Any of the lengths of wood fixed side by side to make a barrel, bucket, or other container.
   More example sentences

   • ‘Experiments with brandy as well as wine, however, demonstrate the superiority of air-dried over kiln-dried wood for barrel staves.’
   • ‘To illustrate this, Liebig imagined a barrel crafted out of staves of mismatched lengths.’
   • ‘The wood of the stave and arrow shafts was dark with moisture.’
   • ‘The adventures that he and his friends shared on the Red River in a homemade canoe made of barrel staves and grain sacks became a favorite memory.’
   • ‘Wilcox's experience as a logger developed into another niche market: cutting staves for a barrel maker.’
   • ‘The sun louvers were made of salvaged barrel staves from a nearby pickle factory.’
   • ‘They entered the market obliquely through the production of non-agricultural products such as barrel staves that they bartered for textiles, hardware and cheap consumer goods.’
   • ‘Richard worked just about every job in that business, from harvesting logs to make the barrel staves through to coopering and trucking the water-tight barrels to fishery clients in Atlantic Canada.’
   • ‘Close by was apparently another barrel which had collapsed as only the staves - still well preserved - remained.’
   • ‘For three years the wine is aged in new barrels made of hand-split oak staves.’
   • ‘It was carried out with a stocking filled with sand or sometimes wooden staves from a cask.’
2. 1.2A strong wooden stick or iron pole used as a weapon.
   More example sentences

   • ‘In the center lie a pile of wooden swords, staves, daggers, shields.’
   • ‘Every character has swords, staves or other edged weaponry, which you can perform light spin attacks or strong power strikes on opponents.’
   • ‘The two guards were confronted by four men in balaclavas, armed with a small samurai sword and wooden staves.’
   • ‘Gabe stalked over to the weapons rack and pulled down two wooden staves, in a bad temper because his preferred sword hadn't been chosen.’
   • ‘Vigilante groups dressed in robes and turbans, armed with staves and swords and mounted on motorbikes, patrol the city to enforce the curfew.’
   • ‘He could make out the glint of staves and unsheathed swords through the swirling dust.’
   • ‘Anyone who remembered the plastic visors, the guns and staves of police guarding the Justice Department during Vietnam protests had to be struck with the civility of it all.’
   • ‘The recital of her crime too was read out as she knelt, and then the executioner stepped forward with a wooden stave and dealt a hundred blows upon her shoulder.’
   • ‘Len Smith was attacked just seconds after reaching his 46th birthday and was beaten savagely with a wooden stave picked up in the beer garden of his pub in Salford.’
   • ‘As he searched, he spotted a wooden stave laying in the dirt.’
   • ‘On the roadway, the supporters were shouting at the crowd to move back, staves were being swung, a few punches thrown.’
   • ‘They responded by putting down their staves and harpoons.’
   • ‘They fought the riot police with staves and stones.’
   • ‘I started to crash to the stones of the courtyard, only to find myself being supported by Gareth, who had immediately dropped his stave to catch me.’
   • ‘Gold-covered wooden staves were used to carry The Ark Of The Covenant.’
   • ‘The same leaders of more than 50 men who beat Peter Cavanaugh to death with wooden staves forbade anyone other than close relatives from attending the burial.’
   • ‘Arms and wooden staves waved in crazy confusion above the human mass and from it projectiles - bricks, rocks, bars of iron - arced into the line of men.’
   • ‘The end of the room was guarded by two women in long white-gold robes, standing to attention, their ornately carved staves upright.’
   • ‘He used his stave like a walking cane, swinging it before him with a tap of his boot.’
   • ‘Jonathan trained his crossbow on the back door while Kyli and Ben stood on either side of the door with their staves raised.’

2

3A verse or stanza of a poem.

1stave something inBreak something by forcing it inwards or piercing it roughly.

2stave something offAvert or delay something bad or dangerous.