staving

Verb

stave (third-person singular simple present staves, present participle staving, simple past staved or (dated) stove, past participle staved or (dated) stove or (dialectal) stoven)

1. (transitive) To fit or furnish with staves or rundles.
   • vpon paine of death to bring it out and to ſtaue it1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC
2. (transitive, usually) To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst.
   • to stave in a cask
3. (transitive) To push, or keep off, as with a staff.
   • The condition of a servant staves him off to a distance.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
4. (transitive, usually) To delay by force or craft; to drive away.
   • We ate grass in an attempt to stave off our hunger.
5. (archaic, intransitive, rare) To burst in pieces by striking against something.
   • But Donald would not hear of that proposal at all, assuring the Prince that it was impossible for them to return to the land again, because the squall was against them, and that if they should steer for the rock the boat would undoubtedly stave to pieces and all of them behoved to be drowned, for...1746, Robert Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning, volume 1, page 164
6. (dated, dialectal, intransitive) To walk or move rapidly.
   • He turned and blundered out of the house, stumbling over a chair and trying a wrong door on the way, and went staving down the street as if afraid to look behind him.1845, The Century Magazine, volume 48, page 41

See all 16 meanings of stave