one of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; esp., one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc.-one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.-a metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.-the five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.-to break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst; -- often with in; as, to stave a cask; to stave in a boat.-to push, as with a staff; -- with off.-to delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.-to suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.-to furnish with staves or rundles.-to render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which lead has been run.-to burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.