different between stave vs staffless

English

Etymology

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

Pronunciation

• enPR: st?v, IPA^(key): /ste?v/
• Rhymes: -e?v

Noun

stave (plural staves)

1. One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc.
2. One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
3. (poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave

     Let us chaunt a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.

4. (music) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
5. A staff or walking stick.
6. A sign, symbol or sigil, including rune or rune-like characters, used in Icelandic magic.

Translations

Verb

stave (third-person singular simple present staves, present participle staving, simple past staved or stove, past participle staved or stove or stoven)

1. (transitive) To fit or furnish with staves or rundles. [from 1540s]
2. (transitive, usually with 'in') To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. [from 1590s]

   to stave in a cask

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 12,^[1]

     A great Sea constant runs here upon the Rocks, and before they got to Land their Boat was stav’d in Pieces […]

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 22:

     Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don’t stave the boats needlessly, ye harpooneers; good white cedar plank is raised full three per cent within the year.
3. (transitive, with 'off') To push, or keep off, as with a staff. [from 1620s]

   • The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.

4. (transitive, usually with 'off') To delay by force or craft; to drive away.

   We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.
5. (intransitive, rare or archaic) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
6. (intransitive, old-fashioned or dialect) To walk or move rapidly.
7. To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
   • 1615, George Sandys, The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610, in four books

     All the […] wine in the city hath been staved.

8. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.

   to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run

Derived terms

• stave in
• stave off

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “stave”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Avest., Sveta, Vesta, evats, vates, vesta

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?stav?]

Noun

stave

1. vocative singular of stav

Middle English

Noun

stave

1. Alternative form of staf

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse stafa

Verb

stave (imperative stav, present tense staver, simple past and past participle stava or stavet, present participle stavende)

1. to spell (words)

Derived terms

• stavefeil
• stavekontroll
• stavemåte

References

• “stave” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?stæfl?s/

Etymology

staff +? -less

Adjective

staffless (not comparable)

1. Without employees; unstaffed.
2. Without a staff, or walking-stick.
   • 1989, Backpacker (volume 17, number 2, page 23)

     Picking up a good stick on the trail is usually easy […] Give it a good sling, or set it by the trailhead for the next staffless vagabond who passes by.

3. (music) Without the use of staves in its notation.
4. (of runes) Without vertical staves.

Synonyms

• (without musical staves): staveless
• (without runic staves): staveless