2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the
bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.
3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero
brave. --Wordsworth.
4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and
between which musical notes are written or pointed; the
staff. [Obs.]
{Stave jointer}, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.
2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off.
The condition of a servant staves him off to a
distance. --South.
3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with
off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.
And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or
guilties, to stave off a chance That breaks upon
them perilously. --Tennyson.
4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys.
5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles.
6. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking
iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which
lead has been run.
{To stave and tail}, in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose
with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to
hold back the dog by the tail. --Nares.
Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank.
--Longfellow.