different between mean vs stale

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?n, IPA^(key): /mi?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n
• Homophone: mien

Etymology 1

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English m?nan (“to mean, signify; lament”), from Proto-Germanic *mainijan? (“to mean, think; lament”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”).

Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian m?na (“signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon m?nian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mieni? (“signify, believe”). Related to moan.

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)

1. To intend.
   1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]

   2. (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]

   3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]

   4. (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.[1]

2. To convey (a meaning).
   1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
   2. (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. [from 8th c.]

      • A term should be included if it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means. This in turn leads to the somewhat more formal guideline of including a term if it is attested and idiomatic.

   3. (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.

3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]

4. (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
5. (usually with to) To be of some level of importance.

   That little dog meant everything to me.

   This shared cup of coffee means something to us.

   Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.

Synonyms

• (convey, signify, indicate): convey, indicate, signify
• (want or intend to convey): imply, mean to say
• (intend; plan on doing): intend
• (have conviction in what one says): be serious
• (have intentions of a some kind):
• (result in; bring about): bring about, cause, lead to, result in

Derived terms

• I mean

Translations

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meaned)

1. (Ireland, Britain regional) To lament.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:

     Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she my?te.

   • 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144:

     They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.

   • 1845, Wodrow Society Select Biographies:

     All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English m?ne, ?em?ne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamain?, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”).

Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin comm?nis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).

Adjective

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

1. (obsolete) Common; general.
2. Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.

3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.

4. Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
   • Ivanhoe (1952 film)

     Prince John: "Your foe has bloodied you, sir knight. Will you concede defeat? You fight too well to die so mean a death. Will you not throw in your lot with me instead?

     Ivanhoe: "That would be an even meaner death, Your Grace."

   a mean motive

   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     Can you imagine I so mean could prove, / To save my life by changing of my love?

5. Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
   • 1708, John Philips, Cyder

     The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes.

6. (chiefly Britain) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.

7. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating
8. Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.

9. Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another

   Synonyms: cruel, malicious

10. Powerful; fierce; strong

    Synonyms: harsh, damaging

11. (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.

12. (informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.

Synonyms

• (intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise): cruel, malicious, nasty, spiteful
• (miserly; stingy): See also Thesaurus:stingy
• (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile
• (powerful): damaging, fierce, harsh, strong
• (accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with): deft, skilful (UK), skillful (US), top-notch
• (inferior): cheap, grotty (slang), inferior, low-quality, naff (UK slang), rough and ready, shoddy, tacky (informal)

Antonyms

• (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): lofty, noble, honorable

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin medi?nus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Cognate with mid. For the musical sense, compare the cognate Italian mezzano. Doublet of median and mizzen.

Adjective

mean (not comparable)

1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value.
2. (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
   • , II.ii.2:

     I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is […].

   • being of middle age and a mean stature

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

mean (plural means)

1. (now chiefly in the plural) A method or course of action used to achieve some result. [from 14th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.5:

     To say truth, it is a meane full of uncertainty and danger.

   • c. 1812, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays

     You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.

   • 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics

     Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean.

   • 2011, "Rival visions", The Economist, 14 Apr 2011:

     Mr Obama produced an only slightly less ambitious goal for deficit reduction than the House Republicans, albeit working from a more forgiving baseline: $4 trillion over 12 years compared to $4.4 trillion over 10 years. But the means by which he would achieve it are very different.

2. (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
   • a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)

     Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.

   • 1606, The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Rob. Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-Plot

     That it was lawful and meritorious to kill and destroy the king, and all the said hereticks. — The mean to effect it, they concluded to be, that, 1. The king, the queen, the prince, the lords spiritual and temporal, the knights and burgoses of the parliament, should be blown up with powder. 2. That the whole royal issue male should be destroyed. S. That they would lake into their custody Elizabeth and Mary the king's daughters, and proclaim the lady Elizabeth queen. 4. That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of alteration of religion, nor that they were parties to the treason, until they had raised power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, all grievances in the kingdom should be reformed.

   • a. 1623, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

     Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.

3. Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. [from 14th c.]
   • 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,

     It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.

4. (music, now historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument. [from 15th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, page 147:

     Of these [rattles] they have Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Meane, and Treble.

5. (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean. [from 15th c.]
6. (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
   • 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,^[3] World Bank Publications, ?ISBN, page 51:

     Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.

   • 2002, Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge,^[4] Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 246:

     Luckily, even though the arithmetic mean is unusable, both the harmonic and geometric means settle to precise values as the amount of data increases.

   • 2003, P. S. Bullen, Handbook of Means and Their Inequalities,^[5] Springer, ?ISBN, page 251:

     The generalized power means include power means, certain Gini means, in particular the counter-harmonic means.

7. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.
   • 1825, John Farrar, translator, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, third edition, page 102,

     ...if four numbers be in proportion, the product of the first and last, or of the two extremes, is equal to the product of the second and third, or of the two means.

   • 1999, Dawn B. Sova, How to Solve Word Problems in Geometry, McGraw-Hill, ?ISBN, page 85,

     Using the means-extremes property of proportions, you know that the product of the extremes equals the product of the means. The ratio t/4 = 5/2 can be rewritten as t:4 = 5:2, in which the extremes are t and 2, and the means are 4 and 5.

   • 2007, Carolyn C. Wheater, Homework Helpers: Geometry, Career Press, ?ISBN, page 99,

     In ${\displaystyle {\frac {18}{27}}={\frac {2}{3}}}$, the product of the means is ${\displaystyle 2\cdot 27}$, and the product of the extremes is ${\displaystyle 18\cdot 3}$. Both products are 54.

Hypernyms

• (statistics): measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic

Coordinate terms

• (statistics): median, mode

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• (statistics): spread, range

Further reading

• mean at OneLook Dictionary Search
• mean in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -mane, -nema, Amen, Eman, Enma, MENA, Mena, NAmE, NEMA, NMEA, amen, mane, mnae, name, namé, neam, ñame

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish medón (“middle, centre”), from Latin medi?nus.

Noun

mean m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. centre, middle

2. interior

3. average

Derived terms

• meanagh (“center, central; intermediate; centric, centrical”, adj)
• mean scoill (“secondary school, college”)

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish menbach (“small”), from a Proto-Celtic derivation of the root *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Latin minus, minor, minutus and Ancient Greek ?????? (minúth?, “lessen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?n/

Adjective

mean

1. little, tiny

Synonyms

• beag
• bìodach
• meanbh
• mion

Derived terms

• mean air mhean

Mutation

Spanish

Verb

mean

1. Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of mear.
2. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes^?) present indicative form of mear.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ste?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stale, of uncertain etymology, but probably originally from Proto-Germanic *st?n? (“to stand”): compare West Flemish stel in the same sense for ‘beer’ and ‘urine’.

Adjective

stale (comparative staler, superlative stalest)

1. (alcoholic beverages, obsolete) Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
   • c. 1300, K. Horn (Laud), 383:

     Bi forn þe king abenche Red win to schenche And after mete stale Boþe win and ale.

   • c. 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 52:

     Notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste or stale

2. No longer fresh, in reference to food, urine, straw, wounds, etc.
   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 325 2:

     Stale as breed or drinke is, rassis. Stale as meate is that begynneth to savoure, viel.

   • c. 1550, Wyll of Deuill, C 2 b:

     New freshe blood to ouersprinkle their stale mete that it may seme...newly kylled.

   • 2012, Stephen Woodworth, In Golden Blood: Number 3 in series

     To her surprise, Abe did not come to collect her for the usual morning inhabitation session with Azure. She did not see him until almost noon, when he personally delivered lunch to her tent. Another stale roll and cup of water sat on the tray he carried. Abe hung his head, as abashed as Honorato had been. “This is all I could sneak in for now. I'll try to get more later.”

3. No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; cliche, hackneyed, dated.
   • 1562, in J. Heywood, Proverbs & Epigrams (1867), 95:

     Better is...be it new or stale, A harmelesse lie, than a harmefull true tale.

   • 1579, in G. Harvey, letter book, 60:

     Doist thou smyle to reade this stale and beggarlye stuffe.

   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I ii 133:

     How wary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable Seeme to me all the vses of this world?

   • 1822 March, Charles Lamb, London Magazine, 284 1:

     A two-days-old newspaper. You resent the stale thing as an affront.

   • 2002, Mark Lawson, And They Rose Up: Days of Retribution

     Rick would comment on the fact that he'd never had such bad coffee, not even the mud at his precinct. Mark would tell him to quit with the stale joke, already

4. No longer nubile or suitable for marriage, in reference to people; past one's prime.
   • c. 1580, J. Jeffere, Bugbears, I ii 108:

     Rosimunda...hathe an vncle a stale batcheler.

   • 1742, T. Short, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 42 226:

     In barren Women, and stale Maids, Tapping should be very cautiously undertaken.

5. (agriculture, obsolete) Fallow, in reference to land.
   • 1764, Museum Rusticum, II 306:

     Lime would do very little or no good on stale ploughed lands.

6. (law) Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.

   a stale affidavit

   a stale demand

   • 1769, William Blackstone, Common Laws of England, IV xv 211:

     The jury will rarely give credit to a stale complaint.

7. Taking a long time to change
   • 2014, David L. Hough, Street Strategies for Motorcyclists

     In most states, you can be ticketed for failing to clear the intersection, even if you are hemmed in by traffic. One good clue to a stale green light is the pedestrian signal.

8. Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.
   • 1856, "Stonehenge", Manual of British Rural Sports, II i vi §7 335:

     By this means the [horse's] legs are not made more stale than necessary.

   • 1885 May 28, Truth, 853 2:

     Dame Agnes will probably be stale after her exertions in the Derby.

9. (finance) Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.
   • 1901, Business Terms & Phrases second edition, 199:

     Stale cheque,...a cheque which has remained unpaid for some considerable time.

10. (computing) Of data: out of date; not synchronized with the newest copy.

    The bug was found to be caused by stale data in the cache.

Usage notes

In the third sense regarding food, usually (but not always) pejorative and synonymous with gone bad and turned. In reference to mead, wine, and bread, it can describe an acceptable or desired state (see: crouton). In modern English, however, "stale beer" has been light struck, flat, or oxidized and is to be avoided.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:hackneyed

Antonyms

• fresh

Derived terms

Related terms

• go stale
• stale drunk

Translations

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (colloquial) Something stale; a loaf of bread or the like that is no longer fresh.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, II iii 39:

     I went to Riggs's batty-cake shop, and asked 'em for a penneth of the cheapest and nicest stales, that were all but blue-mouldy, but not quite.

   • 1937, George Orwell, Road to Wigan Pier, I i 15:

     Frayed-looking sweet-cakes...bought as ‘stales’ from the baker.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (of alcohol, obsolete, transitive) To make stale; to age in order to clear and strengthen (a drink, especially beer).
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stalyn, or make stale drynke, defeco.

   • 1826, Art of Brewing, second edition, 106:

     A stock of old porter should be kept, sufficient for staling the consumption of twelve months.

2. (transitive) To make stale; to cause to go out of fashion or currency; to diminish the novelty or interest of, particularly by excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Fountaine of Self-love, 36:

     Ile goe tell all the Argument of his Play aforehand, and so stale his Inuention to the Auditory before it come foorth.

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humor, I iv:

     Not content To stale himselfe in all societies, He makes my house as common as a Mart.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, II ii 241:

     Age cannot wither her, nor custome stale Her infinite variety.

   • 1863, W. W. Story, Roba di Roma, I i 7:

     Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description.

3. (intransitive) To become stale; to grow odious from excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1717, E. Erskine, Serm. in Wks., 50 1:

     They have got so much of Christ as to be staled of his company.

   • 1893, "Q", Delectable Duchy, 325:

     Philanthropy was beginning to stale.

   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger

     Vi's penchant for puns had struck him as cute when he first met her, but it had staled somewhat over the years.

4. (alcoholic beverages, intransitive) To become stale; to grow unpleasant from age.
   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer, 4th ed., I 64:

     The Drink from that Time flattens and stales.

Derived terms

• antistaling

Etymology 2

From Middle English stale, from Old English stalu, from Proto-Germanic *stal-. The development was paralleled by the ablaut which became English steal, from Middle English stele, from Old English stela, from Proto-Germanic *stel-. The latter also produced Ancient Greek ??????? (steleós, “handle”) and Latin st?la, which became English stele and stela.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. A long, thin handle (of rakes, axes, etc.)
   • 12th century, Sidonius Glosses in Anecd. Oxon., I v 59 22:

     Ansae et ansulae alicuius rei sunt illa eminentia in illa re per quam capi possit .i. ‘stale’.

   • c. 1393, Langland, Piers Plowman (Vesp. MS), C xxii 279:

     And lerede men a ladel bygge with a long stale.

   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer 4th ed., I 61:

     In Case your Cask is a Butt,...have ready boiling...Water, which put in, and, with a long Stale and a little Birch fastened to its End, scrub the Bottom.

   • 1890 February 4, Manchester Guardian, 12 3:

     You came to me with the axe head in one hand and the stale in the other.

2. (dialectal) The posts and rungs composing a ladder.
   • 13th century, Ancrene Riwle, 160:

     Scheome. and pine...beoð þe two leddre stalen. þet beoð upriht to þe heouene. and bitweonen þeos stalen beoð þe tindes i-vestned of alle gode þeauwes. bi hwuche me climbeð to þe blisse of heouene.

   • c. 1315, Shoreham Poems, I 49:

     Þis ilke laddre is charite, Þe stales gode þeawis.

   • 1887, W. D. Parish & al., Kentish Dial.

     Stales, the staves, or risings of a ladder, or the staves of a rack in a stable.

3. (botany, obsolete) The stem of a plant.
4. The shaft of an arrow, spear, etc.
   • 1553, J. Brende translating Q. Curtius Rufus, Hist., IX

     The Surgians cut of the stale of that shaft in suche wise, that they moued not the heade that was wythin the fleshe.

   • c. 1611, G. Chapman translating Homer, Iliad, IV 173:

     ...seeing th'arrowes stale without.

Alternative forms

• stele (botanical, preferred)
• steal, stele (dialectal)
• steel, stail (archaic)

Synonyms

• handle (grip of tools, generally)
• haft (grip of tools, generally, and especially of axes)
• helve (grip of tools, generally)
• shaft (body of arrows, spears, etc.)
• snath, the shaft of a scythe
• stem (plants)

Translations

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To make a ladder by joining rungs ("stales") between the posts.
   • 1492 in Archæol. Cant., XVI 304:

     For stalyng of the ladders of the Churche xx d.

Etymology 3

From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“place, something placed”) (compare French étal), from Frankish stal, from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, earlier *staþlaz. Related to stall and stand.

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (military, obsolete) A fixed position, particularly a soldier's in a battle-line.
   • c. 1450, in C. L. Kingsford, Chrons. London (1905), 123:

     And at pavelen...þe Erle of Dorzet helde is stale, and þer he toke prisoners.

   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, V xi 179

     And syr Florence with his C knyghtes alwey kepte the stale and foughte manly.

2. (chess, uncommon) A stalemate; a stalemated game.
   • 1423, Kingis Quair, CLXIX:

     ‘Off mate?’ quod sche...‘thou has fundin stale This mony day’.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Essays, 65

     They stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre.

3. (military, obsolete) An ambush.
   • c. 1425, Wyntoun Cron., IX viii 811:

     And he in stale howyd al stil.

   • 1513, G. Douglas translating Virgil, Æneid, XI x 96:

     It is a stelling place and sovir harbry, Quhar ost in staill or embuschment may ly.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Chron., II 1479 2:

     The erle of Essex...with .ii. C. speares was layde in a stale, if the Frenchmen had come neerer.

4. (obsolete) A band of armed men or hunters.
   • c. 1350, in N. H. Nicolas, Hist. Royal Navy (1847), II 491:

     [Every time that it shall be ordered..that armed men..shall land on the enemy's coast to seek victuals... then there shall be ordained a sufficient ‘stale’ of armed men and archers who shall wait together on the land until the ‘forreiours’ return to them].

   • 14th century, Morte Arthur, 1355:

     [Gawayne] sterttes owtte to hys stede, and with his stale wendes.

   • c. 1540, J. Bellenden translating H. Boece, Hyst. & Cron. Scotl., XII xvi 184:

     The staill past throw the wod with sic noyis...yat all the bestis wer rasit fra thair dennys.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Hist. Scotl., 471 2 in Chron., I:

     The Lard of Drunlanrig lying al thys while in ambush...forbare to breake out to gyue anye charge vppon his enimies, doubting least the Earle of Lennox hadde kept a stale behynde.

5. (Scotland, military, obsolete) The main force of an army.
   • 1532 in 1836, State Papers Henry VIII, IV 626:

     Neveryeles I knaw asweill by Englisemen as Scottishmen that their stale was no les then thre thowsand men.

Derived terms

Adjective

stale (not comparable)

1. (chess, obsolete) At a standstill; stalemated.
   • c. 1470, Ashmolean MS 344, 21:

     Then drawith he & is stale.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (chess, uncommon, transitive) To stalemate.
   • c. 1470, Ashmole MS 344, 7:

     He shall stale þe black kyng in the pointe þer the crosse standith.

   • 1903, H. J. R. Murray, Brit. Chess. Mag., 283:

     In China, however, a player who stales his opponent's King, wins the game.

2. (chess, obsolete, intransitive) To be stalemated.
   • 1597, A. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 202:

     For vnder cuire I got sik check, that I micht neither muife nor neck, bot ather stale or mait.

Etymology 4

From Middle English stalen (“to urinate”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps Old French estaler, related to Middle High German stallen (“to piss”).

Noun

stale (uncountable)

1. (livestock, obsolete) Urine, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 14th c., Stockh. Medical MS. in Anglia XVIII.299:

     In werd ben men & women […] þat þer stale mown not holde.

   • 1535, Miles Coverdale translating the Bible, "Isaiah", XXXVI.100:

     […] That they be not compelled to eate their owne donge, and drinke their owne stale with you?

   • 1548, Robert Record, Vrinal of Physick, XI.89:

     The stale of Camels and Goats […] is good for them that have the dropsie.

   • 1583, B. Melbancke, Philotimus:

     Or annoint thy selfe with the stale of a mule.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, I.iv.62:

     Thou did'st drinke The stale of Horses.

   • 1698, J. Fryer, New Acct. E.-India & Persia, p.242:

     Mice and Weasels by their poysonous Stale infect the Trees so, that they produce Worms.

   • 1733, W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farming, p.122:

     Sheep, whose Dung and Stale is of most Virtue in the Nourishment of all Trees.

Hypernyms

• See Thesaurus:urine

Derived terms

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (livestock, obsolete, intransitive) To urinate, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 15th century, Lawis Gild, X in Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland, 68:

     Gif ony stal in the yet of the gilde...he sall gif iiijd. to the mendis.

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 732 1:

     Tary a whyle, your hors wyll staale.

   • 1631, Ben Jonson, Bartholmew Fayre I iv 64:

     Why a pox o' your boxe, once againe: let your little wife stale in it, and she will.

   • 1663, T. Killigrew, Parson's Wedding, I iii:

     I wonder [the knight's son] doth not go on all four too, and hold up his Leg when he stales.

   • 1903, Rudyard Kipling, Five Nations, 150:

     Cattle-dung where fuel failed; Water where the mules had staled; And sackcloth for their raiment.

   • c. 1920, Aleister Crowley, "Leigh Sublime":

     You stale like a mare
     And fart as you stale

   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, page 35:

     A mile or two before we got to the meet he stopped at an inn, where he put our horses into the stable for twenty minutes, ‘to give them a chance to stale’.

Usage notes

Occasionally transitive, when in reference to horses or men pissing blood.

Hypernyms

• See Thesaurus:urinate

See also

• piss like a racehorse (vulgar idiom)

Etymology 5

From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), probably from uncommon Anglo-Norman estale (“pigeon used to lure hawks”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic, probably *standan? (“to stand”). Compare Old English stælhran (“decoy reindeer”) and Northumbrian stællo (“catching fish”).

Noun

stale (plural stales)

1. (falconry, hunting, obsolete) A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stale, of fowlynge or byrdys takynge, stacionaria.

   • 1579, Thomas North, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, "Sylla", 515:

     Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.

   • 1608, R. Tofte translating Ludovico Ariosto, Satyres, IV 56:

     A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.

2. (obsolete) Any lure, particularly in reference to people used as live bait.
   • c. 1529, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng", 324, in John Skelton, Certayne Bokes:

     She ran in all the hast
     Vnbrased and vnlast...
     It was a stale to take
     the deuyll in a brake.

   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles, "The Historie of England, from the Time that It Was First Inhabited, Vntill the Time that It Was Last Conquered", 79 2:

     The Britaynes woulde oftentimes...lay their Cattell...in places conueniente, to bee as a stale to the Romaynes, and when the Romaynes shoulde make to them to fetche the same away,...they would fall vpon them.

   • 1615, George Sandys, A Relation of a Iourney begun An: Dom: 1610, I 66:

     ...many of the Coffamen keeping beaytifull boyes, who ?erue as ?tales to procure them cu?tomers.

   • 1670, J. Eachard, Grounds Contempt of Clergy, 88:

     Six-pence or a shilling to put into the Box, for a stale to decoy in the rest of the Parish.

3. (crime, obsolete) An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.
   • 1526, W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection, III:

     Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.

   • 1633, S. Marmion, Fine Compan., III iv:

     This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.

4. (obsolete) a partner whose beloved abandons or torments him in favor of another.
   • 1578, J. Lyly, Euphues, 33:

     I perceiue Lucilla (sayd he) that I was made thy stale, and Philautus thy laughinge stocke.

   • 1588, T. Hughes, Misfortunes Arthur, I ii 3:

     Was I then chose and wedded for his stale?

   • 1611, T. Middleton & al., Roaring Girle:

     Did I for this loose all my friends...to be made A stale to a common whore?

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, II i 100:

     But, too vnruly Deere, he breakes the pale And feedes from home; poore I am but his stale.

   • c. 1640, John Fletcher & al. Little French Lawyer, III iv:

     This comes of rutting: Are we made stales to one another?

5. (obsolete) A patsy, a pawn, someone used under some false pretext to forward another's (usu. sinister) designs; a stalking horse.
   • 1580, E. Grindal in 1710, J. Strype, Hist. E. Grindal, 252:

     That of the two nominated, one should be an unfit Man, and as it were a Stale, to bring the Office to the other.

   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 3, III iii 260:

     Had he none else to make a stale but me?

   • 1614, W. Raleigh, Hist. World, I iv iii §19 239:

     Eurydice...meaning nothing lesse than to let her husband serue as a Stale, keeping the throne warme till another were growne old enough to sit in it.

   • 1711, J. Puckle, Club 20:

     A pretence of kindness is the universal stale to all base projects.

6. (crime, obsolete) A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, II ii 23:

     Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.

   • 1606, S. Daniel, Queenes Arcadia, II i:

     But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?

   • c. 1641, Ralph Montagu, Acts & Monuments, 265:

     ...detesting as he said the insatiable impudency of a prostitute Stale.

7. (hunting, obsolete) Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.
   • 1681, J. Flavell, Method of Grace, XXXV 588:

     'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.

   • 1888, G. M. Fenn, Dick o' the Fens, 53:

     If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.

Verb

stale (third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (rare, obsolete, transitive) To serve as a decoy, to lure.
   • 1557, Tottel's Misc., 198:

     The eye...Doth serue to stale her here and there where she doth come and go.

References

Anagrams

• Astle, ETLAs, Slate, Teals, Tesla, astel, laste, lates, least, leats, salet, setal, slate, steal, stela, taels, tales, teals, telas, tesla

Friulian

Etymology

Of Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stallaz. Compare Romansch stalla, stala, Italian stalla, Venetian sta?a.

Noun

stale f (plural stalis)

1. cowshed
2. stable, stall
3. pigsty

Synonyms

• (cowshed): vacjarìe

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English stalu (“theft”), from Proto-Germanic *stal-.

Noun

stale

1. theft; the act of stealing
   • 1340, Ayenbite 9:

     Ine þise heste is vorbode roberie, þiefþe, stale, and gavel.

2. stealth (used in the phrase bi stale)
   • c. 1240, Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom., 249:

     Hire wune is to cumen bi stale...hwen me least cweneð.

References

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sta.l?/

Adverb

stale

1. constantly, continually

Related terms

• sta?y

Further reading

• stale in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• stale in Polish dictionaries at PWN