Meaning & use
stave
Last updated
To ward off or delay something undesirable, typically used in the phrase 'stave off.'
See it in a sentence
She drank tea to stave off the chill of the winter afternoon.
The company took emergency loans to stave off bankruptcy.
A note on using this word
Stave almost always appears with 'off' in modern English; as a noun it can also mean a wooden strip in a barrel or a set of five lines used in musical notation.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
invitehasten
Another way to use it
2. noun
A set of five horizontal lines on which music is written; a staff.
The composer sketched the melody directly onto a blank stave.
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