• IPA: /ˈsteɪʃən/

station (plural stations)

1. A stopping place.
   1. A regular stopping place for ground transportation.

      The next station is Esperanza.

   2. A ground transportation depot.

      It's right across from the bus station.

   3. A place where one stands or stays or is assigned to stand or stay.

      From my station at the front door, I greeted every visitor.

      All ships are on station, Admiral.

      • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

        " […] Meanwhile, lest anything should really be amiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back, you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good sticks and take your post at the laboratory door. We give you ten minutes, to get to your stations."

   4. (US) A gas station, service station.
      • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

        Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.

2. A place where workers are stationed.
   1. An official building from which police or firefighters operate.

      The police station is opposite the fire station.

   2. A place where one performs a task or where one is on call to perform a task.

      The waitress was at her station preparing three checks.

      The station is part of a group of stations run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

   3. A military base.

      She had a boyfriend at the station.

   4. A place used for broadcasting radio or television.

      I used to work at a radio station.

   5. (Australia, New Zealand) A very large sheep or cattle farm.
      • 1890, A. B. Paterson, The Man From Snowy River,

        There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around, / that the colt from old Regret had got away,

      • 1993, Kay Walsh, Joy W. Hooton, Dowker, L. O., entry in Australian Autobiographical Narratives: 1850-1900, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eNfHNcPTUc8C&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22station%22|%22stations%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=_wyTYjQ8eo&sig=N1T04h53D04yrOVvh-Edt0u_wfU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FZBlUIGKOe-4iAeV14CICg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22station%22|%22stations%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 69],

        Tiring of sheep, he took work on cattle stations, mustering cattle on vast unfenced holdings, and looking for work ‘nigger-bossing’, or supervising Aboriginal station hands.

      • 2003, Margo Daly, Anne Dehne, Rough Guide to Australia, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=GLd1AmP8yckC&pg=PA654&lpg=PA654&dq=%22station%22|%22stations%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&source=bl&ots=o34hDLhGX2&sig=H1VE3zO5MPiE8GN5KHiRRHksl9E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FZBlUIGKOe-4iAeV14CICg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22station%22|%22stations%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 654],

        The romance of the gritty station owner in a crumpled Akubra, his kids educated from the remote homestead by the School of the Air, while triple-trailer road trains drag tornadoes of dust across the plains, creates a stirring idea of the modern-day pioneer battling against the elemental Outback.

3. (Christianity) Any of the Stations of the Cross.
4. (Christianity) The Roman Catholic fast of the fourth and sixth days of the week, Wednesday and Friday, in memory of the council which condemned Christ, and of his passion.
5. (Christianity) A church in which the procession of the clergy halts on stated days to say stated prayers.
6. Standing; rank; position.

   She had ambitions beyond her station.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     The greater part have kept, I see, / Their station.

   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     And they in France of the best rank and station

7. A broadcasting entity.

   I used to listen to that radio station.

8. (Newfoundland) A harbour or cove with a foreshore suitable for a facility to support nearby fishing.
9. (surveying) Any of a sequence of equally spaced points along a path.
10. The particular place, or kind of situation, in which a species naturally occurs; a habitat.
11. (mining) An enlargement in a shaft or galley, used as a landing, or passing place, or for the accommodation of a pump, tank, etc.
12. Post assigned; office; the part or department of public duty which a person is appointed to perform; sphere of duty or occupation; employment.
13. (medicine) The position of the foetal head in relation to the distance from the ischial spines, measured in centimetres.
14. (obsolete) The fact of standing still; motionlessness, stasis.
    • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.5:

      […] the cross legs [are] moving or resting together, so that two are always in motion and two in station at the same time […]

15. (astronomy) The apparent standing still of a superior planet just before it begins or ends its retrograde motion.

• (broadcasting entity) (that broadcasts television) channel
• (ground transport depot) sta (abbreviation), stn (abbreviation)
• (military base) base, military base
• (large sheep or cattle farm) farm, ranch

• French: gare, station
• German: Bahnhof, Station
• Italian: stazione, fermata
• Portuguese: estação
• Russian: остано́вка
• Spanish: estación

• Russian: местоположе́ние

• Russian: ба́за

• French: station
• Italian: stazione
• Portuguese: estação
• Russian: ста́нция

• French: chaîne
• Italian: canale, emittente
• Portuguese: estação
• Russian: ста́нция

station (stations, present participle stationing; past and past participle stationed) (transitive)

1. (usually passive) To put in place to perform a task.

   The host stationed me at the front door to greet visitors.

   I was stationed on the pier.

   • The Costa Rican's lofted corner exposed Arsenal's own problems with marking, and Berbatov, stationed right in the middle of goal, only needed to take a gentle amble back to find the space to glance past Vito Mannone

2. To put in place to perform military duty.

   They stationed me overseas just as fighting broke out.

   I was stationed at Fort Richie.

• German: postieren
• Italian: stazionare

• German: stationieren