Scott: Lady of the Lake

29. 5. To abide; to undergo, to meet, to stand. "They basely fly, and dare not stay the field." Shakesp.: Venus and Adonis , 894. 6. To remain for the purpose of; to wait for; to await the time of; to wait to partake of or to be benefited by. "I stay dinner there." Shakesp.: Richard III ., iii. 2. 7. To last during the accomplishment or comple stāve, v. t. & i. [STAVE, 8.] A. Transitive: 1. To break in a stave or staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. (Often with in .) "The risk of having our boats filled with water, or even staved to pieces."- Cook : Second Voyage, bk. ii., ch. i. 2. To push, as with a staff; hence, to put off, to delay, to postpone. (With off .) "Pitman did his utmost to stave of what looked like impending defeat."- Field , April 4, 1885. 3. To furnish with staves or rundles. "Climbing too fast up the evil staved ladder of ambi. tion." - Knolles : Hist. Turkes. *4. To suffer to be lost or poured out by staving a cask. "The feared disorders that might ensue thereof have been an occasion that divers times all the wine in the city hath been staved." -Sandys: Travels. 5. To make firm by compre ion; to shorten or compact, as a heated rod or bar by endwise blows, or as lead in the socket-joints of pipes. *B. In trans.: to fight with staves. *To stave and tail : A phrase taken from bearbaiting; to stave was to check the bear with a staff, and to tail was to hold back the dog by the tail; hence, to cause a ce ation or stoppage. "First Trulla stared and Cerdon tail'd , Until their mastiffs loosed their hold." Butler: Hudibras, I. iii. 133. *stāved, a. [Perhaps a misprint for slaved or staled .] Accustomed, used. "My touch knew how to perform her office, but by touching unclean things, or by using clean things uncleanly, that sense became staved to all sensuality."-R. Bra i thwaite : The Penitent Pilgrim , p. 169.