vine staff
vine staff noun: a cane originally made of twisted grapevine trimmings and used by Roman centurions to beat the soldiers under their command; the various mushroom-headed batons later borne by them as a mark of office.
Noun
vine staff (plural vine staffs or vine staves)
- A cane originally made of twisted grapevine trimmings and used by Roman centurions to beat the soldiers under their command; the various mushroom-headed batons later borne by them as a mark of office.
- Synonyms:
- centurion's staff
Synonyms of vine staff
Forms of vine staff
| plural | vine staffs |
|---|---|
| plural | vine staves |
| alternative form | vine-staff |
Origin of vine staff
Calque of Latin vītis (“vine; vine staff”).
Questions about vine staff
- What does vine staff mean?
- Vine staff means a cane originally made of twisted grapevine trimmings and used by Roman centurions to beat the soldiers under their command; the various mushroom-headed batons later borne by them as a mark of office.
- What part of speech is vine staff?
- Vine staff is a noun.
- What is the plural of vine staff?
- The plural of vine staff is vine staffs.
Words near vine staff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vine staff (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:
Cite this entry: “vine staff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vine_staff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.