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(ste
v) Pa. tense and pple. staved; also (chiefly Naut.), 8-9 stove. [f. STAVE n.1]
1. trans. To break up (a cask) into staves; to break into and let out the contents.
c1595 CAPT. WYATT R. Dudley's Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.) 10 A bark..beinge forst to cast overborde all..theire fish and to stave theire caske in the whiche theire fresh water was.
1627 CAPT. SMITH Sea Gram. ii. 9 They..staue the Caske to make more roome.
1679 Lond. Gaz. No. 1433/4 Yesterday 7 Hogsheads of French wine..were publickly staved by the Officers of the Custom House.
1771 SMOLLETT Humph. Cl. 8 June, In an action at law, laid against a carman for having staved a cask of port.
1841 DICKENS Barn. Rudge lxvii, They..could see them..broaching the casks, staving the great vats,.. and lying down to drink at the channels of strong spirits.
b. To destroy (wine, etc.) by breaking up the cask.
1615 G. SANDYS Trav. I. (1621) 66 Diuers times all the wine in the Citie hath bene staued.
1633 T. JAMES Voy. 32, I made all the water in hold to be stau'd: and set some to the pumpes to pumpe it out.
1694 ECHARD Plautus 168 He's a plaguy hard custom-master and staves all prohibited goods.
1733 P. LINDSAY Interest Scot. 139 That all seiz'd Brandies should be either staved or exported.
1758 Ann. Reg., Chron. 85/1 They..stove all the beer in the cellar.
1768 Ibid., Hist. Europe 33/1 Wine was forbid..; and all those who were possessed of any quantities of it were obliged to stave it.
1827 SOUTHEY Hist. Penins. War II. 310 They had..staved all the liquor which they could not drink.
fig. 1700 DRYDEN Fables Pref. *A2, If the Searchers find any [irreverent expressions, etc.] in the Cargo, let them be stav'd or forfeited, like Counterbanded Goods.
c. intr. Of a barrel: To fall to pieces. rare.
1797 A. M. BENNETT Beggar Girl (1813) III. 20 One fair day the old barrel staved, over her poor dear tipped, and broke his neck.
2. trans. To break a hole in (a boat); to break to pieces; also, to break (a hole in a boat). to stave in, to crush inwards, make a hole in.
1628 DIGBY Voy. Mediterr. (Camden) 65 The man swimming well he saued himselfe with much difficultie, the boate being staued in many peeces.
1668 Lond. Gaz. No. 324/1 The 17th instant was driven on shoar..a vessel..where by the violence of the winds and waves, she was staved to pieces.
1719 DE FOE Crusoe I. (Globe) 263 The first Thing we had to do, was to stave the Boat..and..leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim.
1748 Anson's Voy. I. viii. 81 A sea..stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge.
Ibid. III. v. 334 The loss of our long-boat, which was staved against our poop,..put us to great inconveniences.
a1779 COOK Voy. Pacific (1784) I.
II. i. 174 The attempt could not be made..unless at the risk of having our boats..staved to pieces.
1819 BYRON Juan II. xlviii, The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had Been stove in the beginning of the gale.
1823 SCORESBY Jrnl. 458 Our ship was driven against the corner of a floe, and her starboard-bow completely stove.
1834 MARRYAT P. Simple xi, He was forced to place sentries in the chains with cold shot, to stave the boats if they came alongside.
1884 Manch. Exam. 7 Oct. 5/1 The captain..ordered the boats to be lowered, but the sea stove in two of them.
1897 M. KINGSLEY W. Africa 496 C...fetches up on a floating stump in the river, and staves a hole you could put your head in, in the bow of the said canoe.
b. intr. for refl. of a boat: To break up; hence trans. to break a hole in.
1743 BULKELEY &
CUMMINS Voy. S. Seas 147 Otherwise she must have stove to pieces, the Ground being very foul.
1794 MORSE Amer. Geog. 71 During the storm, one of the Indian canoes stove, and became unfit for service.
1820 J. O
XLEY Jrnl. Exped. N.S. Wales 225 The large boat struck on a sharp rock, and with such violence as to stave her bottom.
1839 LONGFELLOW Hesperus xix, Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank.
1856 KANE Arct. Expl. II. xxvi. 264 The Hope stove her bottom.
3. transf. trans. To burst in, crush inwards. Chiefly with in.
1716 CHURCH Philip's War (1865)
I. 24 There Philip had staved all his Drums, and conveyed all his Canoo's to the East-side of Metapoiset-River.
1753 Scots Mag. Mar. 109/1 To break open and stave trunks and chests.
1822 A. CLARKE in
Life x. (1834) 253, I found two of the maids..pushing..against the shutters, as the windows themselves had been stove in by the tempest.
1862 TROLLOPE Orley F. xxix, He had..broken his right arm, which had been twisted under him as the horse rolled, and two of his ribs had been staved in by the pommel of his saddle.
1862 BURTON Bk. Hunter (1863) 327 The doors staved in, the wainscoating pulled down.
1879 J. LONG Virgil's Æneid x. 557 He staves The face of Thoas with a
rock
a mass Of bones and blood and brains outspattering.
4. To renew the staves of (a bucket); to put together the staves of (a cask, etc.).
1627 CAPT. SMITH Sea Gram. viii. 36 The Cooper is..to staue or repaire the buckets.
1842 BROWNING Pied Piper vii, A bulky sugar-puncheon, All ready staved.
5. To fit with a staff or handle.
1542 in
Rutland MSS. (1905) IV. 335 Item payd..for the mackyng off leyden malles for archers, the yerne warcke, the lede and casteng, with the staweng off them at [blank] the pece.
1611 FLORIO,
Alberáre,..to shaft or stave any weapon as a holberd.
6. To drive off or beat with a staff or stave; esp. in to stave off, to beat off (a dog in Bear- or Bull- baiting; also transf. a human combatant); to keep back (a crowd). Now only arch.
c1624 DEKKER etc.
Witch Edmonton V. i, But you must play fair, you should be stav'd off else.
1633 T. ADAMS Exp. 2 Peter ii. 4. 521 He is like an old bitten curre, that being fleshed to the game, will not be stav'd off.
1658 USSHER Ann. 717 He went abroad with the rods..and staving the young gamsters when they had contended as long as he thought good, parted them.
1671 tr.
Frejus' Voy. Mauritania 73 Others, who with Clubs, and other weapons in their hands, staved off the Croud of People.
1820 SCOTT Monast. xxxvii, ‘Stave the miller off him’, said Murray, ‘or he will worry him dead.’
1878 TENNYSON Q. Mary I. iii, Stave off the crowd upon the Spaniard there.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1609 B. JONSON Sil. Woman III. i, For gods sake, let's goe staue her off him [
i.e. Mistress Otter from Captain Otter, who are quarrelling].
1611 BEAUM. &
FL. Tri. Time i, I..found him in a young Lords ear so busie..: I pulled him..; spoke unto him, His answer still was, By the Lord, sweet Lord,..Nothing could stave him off.
1627 SANDERSON Serm. ad Magistr. i. §25 (1632) 175 And as for Courage to execute justice..whether it be..that a faire word whistleth him off; or that a great mans letter staveth him off;..sure we are, the Magistrate too often letteth the wicked carry away the spoyle, without breaking a Iaw of him.
1647 TRAPP Comm. 1 Thess. iii 6 God stints him [the devil], and staves him off, when he would worry his poor lambs.
1649 EARL OF MONMOUTH tr.
Senault's Use Passions VI. iii. 467 Other Passions are in a perpetuall motion; and..they never fix themselves so strongly on an Object, but they may be staved off.
1884 TENNYSON Becket Prol., And this Becket, her father's friend, like enough staved us from her.
c. Phrase. to stave and tail: see TAIL v.1 2. Also transf. and fig.
1663 [see
TAIL v.1 2].
1668 R. L'ESTRANGE Vis. Quev. (1708) 68 As they were Staving and Tayling, you might have had more Manners (cry'd one) than to give such Language to your Betters.
a1697 J. AUBREY Countrey Revell II. iii. in
Brief Lives (1898) II. 334 Yesterday we Cheshire gentlemen mett at a barrell of ale at the bull-ring where we sufficiently bayted both bull and barrell; and having well dranke there, staved and tayled.
Ibid. 335 The Justice and I..parted em, and, with something more trouble then staving and tayling dog and bull.
1823 SCOTT Quentin D. xxxiii, They seized him, pulled him down, and would probably soon have throttled him, had not the Duke called
out‘Stave and tail!
stave and tail!
Take them off him!’
1829 
Let. 30 Jan. in
Croker Papers (1884) II. 31 Jamie then set to staving and tailing between his father and the philosopher, and..reduced the debate to more order.
d. (See quot.)
1867 SMYTH Sailor's Word-bk. s.v.,
To stave off, to boom off; to push anything off with a pole.
7. fig. Chiefly to stave off. 
a. To keep (a person) away or at a distance; to repel. Obs.
1631 F. LENTON Charact. C8b, Hee aspiers sometimes to his Masters daughter, but being stau'd off there, hee choppes vpon the Chambermaid, and there stickes fast.
1636 HEYLIN Sabbath II. vi. 185 To allure the people thither, being before staved off by a former Synod, it was provided that [etc.].
1641 F. GREVILLE Disc. Nat. Episc. II. vi. 88 Heresies distract our soules, dismember our Churches, stave off Iew and Gentile, who know not whether part to believe.
1667 SOUTH 12 Serm. (1697) II 60 The Condition of a Servant staves him off to a distance; but the Gospel speaks nothing but Allurement.
b. To keep (a person) from (doing something); to divert from (an object, practice, or course of action). Obs.
1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 329 This makes them..to put themselves under the protection of the Spaniard, the feare of whose power staves off the Duke from attempting upon that State.
1636 B. JONSON Discov., Nil gratius, How can they escape the contagion of the Writings, whom the virulency of the calumnies hath not stav'd off from reading?
1641 QUARLES Enchyridion III. xvii. (Grosart) 31/2 Divert the course of the vulgar humor, by devulging..some..novelty, which may..stave their tongues from off thy worried name.
Ibid. III. xxviii. 32/2 If he be given to lavish Company, endeavour to stave him off with lawfull Recreations.
1646 GAULE Cases Consc. 86 And there's no staving them off their owne conceited way of Tryall.
1651 N. BACON Disc. Govt. Eng. II. vi. (1739) 27 It was the policy of these times..to carry a benign Aspect to the Pope, so far only as to stave him off from being an enemy.
1654 OWEN Doctr. Saints' Persev. xii. §59. 297 This dread and terrour [used] for the hedging up their wayes from folly, and staving them off from any Actuall evill.
1658 HEYLIN Stumbling-block iii. §4. 81 Enough of conscience to have staved them from the prosecution, but that they had it in design, and resolved to carry it.
1668 OWEN Expos. 130th Ps. 111 What staves off these hungry creatures [
sc. souls] from their proper food?
1684 H. MORE Answer xiii. 95 By this sharp reproof they may be the more effectually staved off from committing Idolatry.
c. To put off as importune or inopportune; to treat with evasion.
1646 J. HALL Horæ Vac. 4 Columbus..had beene stav'd off by severall Christian Princes, yet..He gained the assistance of the King and Queene of Castile.
a1656 HALES Gold. Rem. I. (1673) 43 God himself in the Book of Psalms, staves them off with a
Quid tu ut enarres mea? etc.
1680 N. LEE Cæsar Borgia III. i, But speak, thou stav'st me off.
1723 WATERLAND 2nd Vind. Christ's Divin. ii. 66 But it is high Time now to come to Antiquity; which has been so long staved off, and yet must make a great part of our Discourse.
1843 A. BETHUNE Scott. Peasant's Fireside 79 The poor lad was staved off from time to time, wi' ae excuse after anither, till he grew impatient.
1887 HAGGARD Jess xxxiv, This staved the fellows off for a while.
d. To ward off (something undesirable or hurtful); to prevent the occurrence or event of; to keep back, delay. Also (rarely), to stave away.
1662 J. WILSON Cheats V. iii, Had you but mist me now, I should have ventur'd that, and perhaps stav'd, That misery, which alwayes follows rashness.
1664 A. Commenius II. iii, 'Tis seal'd, and done: Nor shall the fate, or fortune of the Empire Stave it off longer.
1684 tr.
Bonet's Merc. Compit. VI 170 The Powder being given again, the fit is staved off.
1691 d'Emiliane's Frauds Rom. Monks 397 They..earnestly entreated him, to make use of all his Credit with the Pope, to stave off this fatal Blow from them.
1759 Ann. Reg. 6/2 New methods were devised, which might stave off the entire ruin of their finances.
1837 CARLYLE Fr. Rev. II.
VI. iv, Insurrection will come; but likewise will it not be met? Staved off, one may hope, till Brunswick arrive?
1849 W. IRVING Goldsmith xxxii. 278 He had obtained an advance of money from Newbery to stave off some pressing debts.
1859 TENNYSON Geraint & Enid 352 But Enid..answer'd with such craft as women use, Guilty or guiltless, to stave off a chance That breaks upon them perilously.
1865 CARLYLE Fredk. Gt. XX. vii. IX. 140 One huge peril handsomely staved away, though so many others impend.
1879 DIXON Windsor III. xxiii. 231 A little fish sufficed to stave off hunger.
1884 CHURCH Bacon vi. 129 The proposed conference was staved off by management for a day or two; but it could not be averted.
8. intr. To fight with staves.
1663 BUTLER Hud. I. iii. 88 He..stav'd it out, Disdaining to lay down his arms.
9. trans. To drive with a heavy blow. U.S.
1837 Knickerbocker Mag. Nov. X. 408 (Thornton
Amer. Gloss.), [He had] stove two of his front teeth down his throat.
1837 J. C. NEAL Charcoal Sketches (Bartlett
Dict. Amer.), I'll stave my fist right through you, and carry you on my elbow, as easily as if you were an empty market-basket.
10. intr. To go with a rush or dash; to ‘drive’. Sc. and U.S.
1819 [
RENNIE]
St. Patrick III. xi. 265 The puir lads..ha'e been a' night stavin' at ane anither, and struislin' i' the dark.
1825 J. NEAL Bro. Jonathan II. xxiii. 303 ‘Hold in!’..cried out a long, slab-sided Virginian, as our adventurers went, staving through Broadway, in Mr. Ashley's go-cart.
1836 Phila. Public Ledger 5 Oct. (Thornton
Amer. Gloss.), He stove about in every direction, like a mad bull.
1880 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Tramp Abroad ii, Other pedestrians went staving by us with vigorous strides.
1886 STEVENSON Kidnapped xxvi, If we seek to creep round..it's..there that they'll be looking to lay hands on us. But if we stave on straight to the auld Brig of Stirling, I'll lay my sword they let us pass unchallenged.
1894 P. H. HUNTER James Inwick iii. (1900) 37 He was staivin doon the street.
11. Forging. To thicken (bar-iron) by heating and hammering, to UPSET; also to stave up. Also absol. b. intr. Of the iron: To undergo staving; also to stave up.
1906 J. WATSON Tables for Blacksm. & Forgers Pref., The information required is generally about allowances for staving and drawing down.
Ibid. 9 To stave up out of a bar 6´´ wide by 4´´ thick a part 7´´ wide by
4
´´ thick by 9´´ long.
Ibid., So that 12´´ long of 6´´ wide by 4´´ thick staves up to 9´´ long of 7´´ wide by
4
´´ thick.
Ibid. 15 A 4´´ diameter bar is to have a length of 2´´ at 5´´ diameter staved on one end, and a part drawn down to
3
´´ diameter by 10´´ long.
Ibid. 23 A bar
1
´´ round is to be staved to
1
´´ square by
1
´´ long: what length of
1
´´ round is required?
c. transf. (See quot.)
1850 OGILVIE,
Stave, v...6. To make firm by compression. The term is applied to the compressing of lead by a hammer or a blunt chisel, after it has been run in to secure a joining, such as the socket joints of pipes.
12. To sprain (one's thumb, etc.) Sc.
1887 Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. 228/1 He steved his wrist and staved my thumb.
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