Pronunciation Noun
stead (plural steads)
- (obsolete) A place, or spot, in general. [10th-16th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene, II:
- For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around […].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene, II:
- (obsolete) A place where a person normally rests; a seat. [10th-18thc.]
- 1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island:
- There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads.
- 1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island:
- (obsolete) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc. [13th-16thc.]
- (obsolete) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm. [14th-19thc.]
- 1889, H. Rider Haggard, Allan's Wife:
- But of course I could not do this by myself, so I took a Hottentot—a very clever man when he was not drunk—who lived on the stead, into my confidence.
- 1889, H. Rider Haggard, Allan's Wife:
- (obsolete) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. [15th-19thc.]
- The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.
- (in phrases, now literary) The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor. [from 15thc.]
- 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion:
- She was so wretched and so vehement, complained so much of injustice in being expected to go away instead of Anne; Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best right to stay in Henrietta's stead!
- 1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, page 285:
- His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats […]
- 2011, "Kin selection", The Economist, 31 March:
- Had Daniel Ortega not got himself illegally on to this year’s ballot to seek a third term, his wife might have run in his stead.
- 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion:
- (figurative) An emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases). [from 15thc.]
- 2010, Dan van der Vat, The Guardian, 19 September:
- Though small and delicate-looking, she gave an impression of intense earnestness and latent toughness, qualities that stood her in good stead when she dared to challenge the most intrusive communist society in eastern Europe.
- 2010, Dan van der Vat, The Guardian, 19 September:
- German: Stadt
- Russian: фе́рма
stead (steads, present participle steading; past and past participle steaded)
- To help, support, benefit or assist; to be helpful or noteful.
- circa 1596-97 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I scene iii:
- May you stead me? will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer?
- circa 1603 William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I scene iii:
- I could never better stead thee than now. […]
- circa 1610-11 William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene ii:
- Some food we had and some fresh water that / A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, / Out of his charity,—who being then appointed / Master of this design,—did give us, with / Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, / Which since have steaded much: […]
- circa 1596-97 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I scene iii:
- To fill stead or place of.
- Russian: помога́ть
stead (plural steads)
- (Singapore, colloquial) One's partner in a romantic relationship.
Stead
Proper noun
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