How to use stave in a sentence

21 example sentences · noun, verb

Stave means one of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc. Example: “We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.”

Examples of stave by meaning

nounThe initial consonant, consonant cluster, or vowel of a word which rhymes with another word with the same consonant or...

This may seem sparse and incomplete, but is reminiscent of the Old Norse stave rhyme technique in which one avoided two alliterating staves in one dipod – which the poets of that time considered superfluous.2005, Studia musicologica Norvegica

verbTo break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.

to stave in a cask

verbTo delay by force or craft; to drive away.

We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.
Congress had authorized seeds to be granted to the farmers there to stave hunger, but President Cleveland vetoed the bill.2009, Brent Stransky, The Young Conservative's Field Guide, page 39

verbTo render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.

to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run

More sentences with stave

He drank plenty of orange juice, hoping to stave off the cold making the rounds at the office.From the entry stave off
"We'll get an axe and stave in all these barrels and the liquid will all run out", threatened the man.From the entry stave in
Winston wore a nightcap to stave off the cold.From the entry nightcap
You know, how can I stave off the stress and the bullying for another few days.2017, podcast "Untold - The Daniel Morgan Murder", episode "Master of the Dark Arts", from minute 11:18. From the entry bullock
Next in order of troublesomeness is the corn-buttercup or stave acre.1921, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. From the entry stave acre
The beauty industry, long promising to stop or at least stave off time, is finding a way to market it.2012 August 8, Alix Strauss, “Marketing Time in a Bottle Pays Off”, in The New York Times. From the entry time-release
I will continue to support my side so at least to stave off the adjenda of the other side.2005 October 6, enki, “Didn't realize...”, in alt.politics.bush (Usenet), retrieved 22 Apr 2022. From the entry adjenda
The third and final volume of the temporale employs a different stave height and was clearly written later.2003, Pia Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, →ISBN, page 53. From the entry temporale
Such a suggestion is scoffed at by Shimerians who maintain that they have the will to stave off institutional death.1976 May 3, Gene I. Maeroff, “Illinois College Defies Premature Reports and Clings to Life”, in New York Times. From the entry Shimerian
Lee felt that disaster lurked ahead, and he did his best to stave it off by making conversation.1923, Max Brand, chapter 18, in The Quest of Lee Garrison, New York: Leisure Books, published 1999, page 135. From the entry make conversation
The crotchets and quavers are dancing up and down the stave like little black boys on a fence.1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable…. From the entry quaver
In the decade since, there's been a boom in beekeeping, with new hives offsetting losses of old hives, staving off the “beepocalypse,” Ellis says.2019, Cindy Spence, "Hive Help", Explore (University of Florida), Spring 2019, page 20. From the entry beepocalypse
So, until Netscape comes up with Smell-o-vision, reading about and looking at food on the Web will have to stave off those hunger pains.1999, Nora Paul, Margot Williams, “Food Resources on the Web”, in Paula J. Hane, editor, Great Scouts! Cyberguides for Subject Searching…. From the entry smell-o-vision
On the other hand, almost any girl, specifically one with a full head of hair, would help you stave off this creeping sense of mortality.1984, Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, →ISBN, page 4. From the entry no way, José
Moreover, where older firms might have to stave off competitors and engage in practices like predatory pricing to keep the competition at bay, platform monopolies have a built-in moat.2023 November 28, JS Tan, “It's All Bullshit”, in The Baffler. From the entry moat
When making a sign with handflags the line between the shoulder and the point of the handflag stave must be absolutely straight, as shown in the diagrams.1951, Great Britain. Admiralty, Manual of Seamanship (volume 1, page 251). From the entry handflag

Meaning of stave

noun One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.
noun One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel.
noun A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.

Full definition of stave

Questions about stave in a sentence

How do you use stave in a sentence?: Stave is used as a noun and verb. For example: “We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.”
What is a short sentence with stave?: “to stave in a cask”
What does stave mean?: Stave means one of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.

Adapted from Wiktionary: stave (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use stave in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/stave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.