sty
/staɪ/
sty noun: a pen or enclosure for swine.
Noun (1)
sty (plural sties)
- A pen or enclosure for swine.
- A messy, dirty or debauched place.
- To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
Verb (1)
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- To place in, or as if in, a sty.
- and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o' the island1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.
Verb (2)
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- To ascend, rise up, climb.
- The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- From this lower tract he dared to stie up to the clowdes.1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC
Noun (2)
sty (plural sties)
- A ladder.
Noun (3)
sty (plural sties)
- An inflammation of the eyelid.
sty meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
sty in Tamil
- பன்றிமால், பன்றிக் கொட்டில், பன்றிப்பட்டி
sty in Malayalam
- പന്നിക്കൂട്, ദുർഗ്ഗന്ധ സ്ഥലം, മ്ലേച്ഛസ്ഥലം
sty in Kannada
- ಕಣ್ಣುಕುಟಿಕೆ, ರೆಪ್ಪೆಕುರು, ಕಣ್ಕಿಟಿಕೆ, ಕಣ್ಕುಟಿಗೆ, ಕಣ್ಕುಟಿಲೆ, ಕಣ್ಕುಟಿಲ
Examples of sty in a sentence
- Led along, as some Creatures are, by the Noses, and voluntarily hood-winked; or like seeled Doves, sty up, you know not whither, nor how far.1621, Richard Montague, Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes:
- That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth.1652, Edward Benlowes, Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice:
Synonyms of sty
Forms of sty
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sties |
| alternative form | stye |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sties |
| present participle | stying |
| past participle | stied |
| past | stied |
| alternative form | stee |
| alternative form | stie |
| alternative form | stigh |
Origin of sty
From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *stī, from Proto-Germanic *stiją. Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).
From Middle English stien, stiȝen, stighen, from Old English stīgan (“to go; ascend, mount”), from Proto-West Germanic *stīgan, from Proto-Germanic *stīganą, from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-. Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Danish stige, Norwegian Bokmål stige, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.
From Middle English styanye, mistaken as "sty on eye" yet composed of Old English stīġend (“sty”, literally “riser”), agent noun from stīgan (“to rise”) + Middle English yë (“eye”).
Words formed from sty
Phrases with sty
Words that rhyme with sty
Questions about sty
- What does sty mean?
- Sty means a pen or enclosure for swine.
- What is sty in Tamil?
- Sty in Tamil is பன்றிமால், பன்றிக் கொட்டில், பன்றிப்பட்டி. See Sty meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use sty in a sentence?
- Led along, as some Creatures are, by the Noses, and voluntarily hood-winked; or like seeled Doves, sty up, you know not whither, nor how far.
- What part of speech is sty?
- Sty can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sty?
- Sty is pronounced /staɪ/.
- What is the plural of sty?
- The plural of sty is sties.
Words near sty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sty (page history and authors); sty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sty (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sty (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sty.wav.
Cite this entry: “sty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.