Make Your Point: STAVE

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pronounce STAVE:

STAIVE

connect this word to others:

You know what it means to stave off hunger, or stave off bankruptcy, or stave off a war.

But what is a stave? What would it look like to stave something off with a literal stave? We'll explore that in just a second!

On a similar note, see if you can explain what a harrow is, and what it means to be literally harrowed.

definition:

Let's start with "staff," another word for "rod" or "stick." "Staff" traces back through the centuries to Middle English.

If you talk about more than one staff, you can call them "staves" (much like how more than one leaf are "leaves").

Historically, the word "staves" was applied so often to certain kinds of rods and sticks—the ones used as weapons, or used to make bows or barrels—that it took on its own meanings, and people treated "stave" as the singular form.

(Source 1) (Source 2)

So, in the most literal sense, a stave is a long, strong piece of wood, used as a weapon or used for a bow or a barrel.

And to stave something off is to fight it off, as if it's an attacker and you're defending yourself with a long, strong piece of wood.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Most often a verb: "They try to stave off loneliness;" "They successfully staved off a lawsuit."

Other forms:

Staved, staving.

how to use it:

Pick the common word "stave" when you want a neat, tidy, subtly violent metaphor for people fighting off all kinds of bad things, from pains and illnesses to emotions and failures, as if with a long, sturdy wooden weapon.

Talk about people staving things off: "He swears this juice helps him stave off the common cold." "Somehow she managed to stave bankruptcy off."

examples:

"She smiled at him, and said, 'Mother says that rice pudding in sufficient quantity will help to stave off chills and colds and other autumnal ailments.'"
— Neil Gaiman, Stardust, 1997

"The show's scandalous pilot features... a raft of racial slurs. CBS, which picked up the series only after ABC had twice rejected it, tried to stave off any controversy by airing a disclaimer before the first episode."
— Gwydion Suilebhan and Steven Gimbel, Salon, 27 July 2022

has this page helped you understand "stave"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "stave" without saying "ward" or "thwart."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) (does something) to stave off (some kind of pain or problem, such as hunger, anxiety, an argument, or a foreclosure)."

Example 1: "When kids get a free hot lunch at school, they stave off not just hunger but also poor academic achievement."

Example 2: "I kept a giant-size bag of peanut M&Ms and Bazooka bubble gum in the glove compartment to help stave off hunger when I didn't have time for a meal."
— Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, 2014

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The Tip of the Tongue!"

You know how sometimes you'll be reaching for a perfect word, and it's right there at the tip of your tongue, where you can almost taste it? Somehow that word is caught in the liminal space between your memory and your mouth. This month, let's play with that experience, and practice resolving it to our satisfaction.

I'll give you a short quote from Chris Palmer's heartfelt and eye-opening new book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, along with a blank where Chris has deployed a truly perfect word. To help bring that word to the tip of your tongue, I'll describe it both physically and semantically.

Try this one today:

"We must embrace and celebrate getting older. Being ashamed, embarrassed, or anxious about getting old is as _____ as denying death."

The word is 3 syllables long. It's a compound word, like "broadminded." And it's almost alliterative, like "sheepskin."

The word means "looking only at the immediately surrounding time or space, failing to look further."

To reveal the right word, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

review this word:

1. Opposites of STAVE include

A. ACCEPT and LEAN.
B. PLAN and PREPARE.
C. CHALLENGE and SURRENDER.

2. In witchy stores like The Green Cauldron, you'll find items that claim to help you stave off _____.

A. friends and lovers
B. debt, despair, and bad dreams
C. balance, energy, and self-assurance

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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