English Explanatory Dictionary

staff

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
  2. A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.
  3. The employees of a business.
  4. A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.ᵂ
  5. A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.
  6. A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
  7. The rung of a ladder.
  8. A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
  9. An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
  10. The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
  11. An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.
  12. A form of token once used, in combination with a ticket, for safe train movements between two points on a single line.
verb
  1. To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.
noun
  1. Misspelling of staph.

Pronunciation

stäf /stɑːf/ [stɑːf] [stäːf] [stɐːf] stăf /stæf/ [stæf] [stɛəf] [steəf] [staf] [stäf] En-us-staff.ogg

Word forms

staff staffs staves staffing staffed

Etymology

From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf (“letter of the alphabet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Danish stav, Swedish stav. Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.

Synonyms

stick stave personnel

Related words

baton bludgeon cane club cudgel rod stick truncheon

Derived words

Aesculapian staff air staff airstaff almucantar staff backroom staff barstaff bass staff bedstaff bookstaff broomstaff cantoral staff centurion's staff chief of staff churn-staff cleystaff completed staff work constaff cowl-staff cowlstaff cross-staff destaff dogs have masters, cats have staff dogs have owners, cats have staff doorstaff flag-staff flagstaff flag staff forestaff general staff grand staff groundstaff ground staff half-staff half staff handstaff jackstaff jack-staff Jacob's staff Jedburgh staff Jeddart staff Jupiter's staff leveling staff levelling staff level staff Longstaff member of staff Mercury's staff nonstaff offset staff orange staff sergeant packstaff paddle-staff palmer's staff pikestaff pilgrim's staff ploughstaff plowstaff quarterstaff ragged staff set up one's staff
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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