stake
Forms
- Plural
- stakes
- present (v1)
- stake
- past (v2)
- staked
- past participle (v3)
- staked
- present participle
- staking
- 3rd person singular
- stakes
Definitions
1.A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.
- A sharpened stake strong Dryas found.
- We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.
2.A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
3.A stick or similar object (e.g., steel channel or angle stock) inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off; often connected in a grid forming a stakebody.
4.The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned.
- Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
1.To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
2.To provide (another) with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.
- His family staked him $10,000 to get his business started.
- John went broke, so to keep him playing, Jill had to stake him.
3.To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.
4.To pierce or wound with a stake.
- “You ladies happen to notice what happened to this vampire? This just happened. Did you see who staked him?”
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2941
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”).