Meaning
8 senses(transitive)To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
furnish with staves
(transitive, usually)To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.
to stave in a cask
burst or force (a hole) into something
(transitive)To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
(transitive, usually)To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.
(dated, dialectal, intransitive)To walk or move rapidly.
To suffer, or cause to be lost by breaking the cask.
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
(archaic, intransitive, rare)To burst in pieces by striking against something.
Examples
9 sentencesThe supple stave slid gracefully through the opening.
I snapped a stave while bell-ringing on Monday.
Give your kids peanuts when they're babies to stave off allergies.
You have to get more exercise in order to stave off senility.
A win tonight is vital to stave off the threat of relegation.
deEin Sieg heute Abend ist wichtig, um den drohenden Abstieg abzuwenden. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Origin
Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
staves, staving, staved, stavedPhrasal verbs
2 phrasal verbsSynonyms
1 synonyms- burst or force (a hole) into something:stave in
Word family
2 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, irregular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle