Word Meanings - STAFF - Book Publishers vocabulary database

The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called stave. (more info) stab, Icel. stafr, Sw. staf, Dan. stav, Goth. stabs element, rudiment, Skr. sthapay to cause to stand, to place. See Stand, and 1. A long piece of wood;

Additional info about word: STAFF

The five lines and the spaces on which music is written; -- formerly called stave. (more info) stab, Icel. stafr, Sw. staf, Dan. stav, Goth. stabs element, rudiment, Skr. sthapay to cause to stand, to place. See Stand, and 1. A long piece of wood; a stick; the long handle of an instrument or weapon; a pole or srick, used for many purposes; as, a surveyor's staff; the staff of a spear or pike. And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar to bear it withal. Ex. xxxviii. 7. With forks and staves the felon to pursue. Dryden. 2. A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds. "Hooked staves." Piers Plowman. The boy was the very staff of my age. Shak. He spoke of it in "The Earnest Cry," and likewise in the "Scotch Drink," as one of the staffs of life which had been struck from the poor man's hand. Prof. Wilson. 3. A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff. Methought this staff, mine office badge in court, Was broke in twain. Shak. All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them. Hayward. 4. A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed. 5. The round of a ladder. I ascend at one of six hundred and thirty-nine staves. Dr. J. Campbell . 6. A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave. Cowley found out that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being all too lyrical. Dryden.

Related words: (words related to STAFF)

• CALLOSUM
  The great band commissural fibers which unites the two cerebral hemispheres. See corpus callosum, under Carpus.
• CALLOW
  1. Destitute of feathers; naked; unfledged. An in the leafy summit, spied a nest, Which, o'er the callow young, a sparrow pressed. Dryden. 2. Immature; boyish; "green"; as, a callow youth. I perceive by this, thou art but a callow maid. Old Play .
• CAUSEFUL
  Having a cause.
• CALLE
  A kind of head covering; a caul. Chaucer.
• PLACEMENT
  1. The act of placing, or the state of being placed. 2. Position; place.
• MUSIC HALL
  A place for public musical entertainments; specif. , esp. a public hall for vaudeville performances, in which smoking and drinking are usually allowed in the auditorium.
• PLACENTARY
  Having reference to the placenta; as, the placentary system of classification.
• PLACE-KICK
  To make a place kick; to make by a place kick. -- Place"-kick`er, n.
• CAUSEWAYED; CAUSEYED
  Having a raised way ; paved. Sir W. Scott. C. Bronté.
• ELEMENTAL
  1. Pertaining to the elements, first principles, and primary ingredients, or to the four supposed elements of the material world; as, elemental air. "Elemental strife." Pope. 2. Pertaining to rudiments or first principles; rudimentary; elementary.
• FORMERLY
  In time past, either in time immediately preceding or at any indefinite distance; of old; heretofore.
• ELEMENT
  1. One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. 2. One of the ultimate, undecomposable constituents of any kind of matter. Specifically:
• STANDARD
  The proportion of weights of fine metal and alloy established by authority. By the present standard of the coinage, sixty-two shillings is coined out of one pound weight of silver. Arbuthnot. (more info) extendere to spread out, extend,
• STANDPOINT
  A fixed point or station; a basis or fundamental principle; a position from which objects or principles are viewed, and according to which they are compared and judged.
• CALL
  callen, AS. ceallin; akin to Icel & Sw. kalla, Dan. kalde, D. kallen 1. To command or request to come or be present; to summon; as, to call a servant. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain Shak. 2. To summon to the discharge of a particular
• STANDPIPE
  A vertical pipe, open at the top, between a hydrant and a reservoir, to equalize the flow of water; also, a large vertical pipe, near a pumping engine, into which water is forced up, so as to give it sufficient head to rise to the required level
• MUSICALLY
  In a musical manner.
• PIECER
  1. One who pieces; a patcher. 2. A child employed in spinning mill to tie together broken threads.
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• CALLIOPE
  The Muse that presides over eloquence and heroic poetry; mother of Orpheus, and chief of the nine Muses. (more info) beautiful) +
• GYMNASTICALLY
  In a gymnastic manner.
• CHURCHLINESS
  Regard for the church.
• HYPERCRITICALLY
  In a hypercritical manner.
• PHILOMUSICAL
  Loving music. Busby.
• FRIENDLINESS
  The condition or quality of being friendly. Sir P. Sidney.
• SCALLION
  A kind of small onion , native of Palestine; the eschalot, or shallot. 2. Any onion which does not "bottom out," but remains with a thick stem like a leek. Amer. Cyc.
• UNEMPIRICALLY
  Not empirically; without experiment or experience.
• LORDLINESS
  The state or quality of being lordly. Shak.
• UNIVOCALLY
  In a univocal manner; in one term; in one sense; not equivocally. How is sin univocally distinguished into venial and mortal, if the venial be not sin Bp. Hall.
• PARABOLICALLY
  1. By way of parable; in a parabolic manner. 2. In the form of a parabola.
• BYSTANDER
  One who stands near; a spectator; one who has no concern with the business transacting. He addressed the bystanders and scattered pamphlets among them. Palfrey. Syn. -- Looker on; spectator; beholder; observer.
• STEREOGRAPHICALLY
  In a stereographical manner; by delineation on a plane.
• HEMEROCALLIS
  A genus of plants, some species of which are cultivated for their beautiful flowers; day lily.
• STEELINESS
  The quality of being steely.
• ACRONYCALLY
  In an acronycal manner as rising at the setting of the sun, and vise versâ.
• SPARPIECE
  The collar beam of a roof; the spanpiece. Gwilt.