• enPR: stěd, IPA: /stɛd/

From Middle English sted and steden, from Old English stede, from Proto-Germanic *stadiz, from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis.

Cognate with German Stadt, Statt and Stätte, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐍃, Danish sted, Danish - and Swedish stad, Norwegian Bokmål sted, Scots steid, Western Frisian stêd, Saterland Frisian Stääd and Steede, Dutch stad, Yiddish שטאָט. See the doublet stasis.

stead (plural steads)

1. (obsolete) A place, or spot, in general. [10th]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around […].

2. (obsolete) A place where a person normally rests; a seat. [10th]
   • 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.

3. (obsolete) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc. [13th]
4. (obsolete) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm; a homestead. [14th]
   • 1889 December, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “[Allan’s Wife] The Baboon-Woman”, in Allan's Wife and Other Tales, London: Spencer Blackett, […], →OCLC ↗, page 123 ↗:

     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.

5. (obsolete) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. [15th]
   • 1693, John Dryden, Baucis and Philemon:

     The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.

6. (in phrases, now literary) The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor. [from 15th c.]
   • 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC ↗:

     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 […]

7. (figurative) An emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases). [from 15th c.]

• French: lieu
• German: Stätte
• Portuguese: local
• Russian: ме́сто
• Spanish: lugar

• German: statt

• German: Statt, Gestell

• German: Stadt, Stätte, Gehöft, Stelle
• Russian: фе́рма

stead (steads, present participle steading; simple past and past participle steaded)

1. (obsolete) To help, support, benefit or assist; to be helpful.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     May you stead me? will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer?

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     I could never better stead thee than now. […]

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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: […]

2. (obsolete) To fill the stead or place of something.

• German: helfen
• Russian: помога́ть

• German: ersetzen

stead (plural steads)

1. (Singapore, colloquial) One's partner in a romantic relationship.

1. Surname.
2. A locality in Burley, Bradford (OS grid ref SE1446).