English Explanatory Dictionary

stake

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  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.
  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.
  5. A share or interest in a business or a given situation.
  6. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
  7. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
  8. A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
verb
  1. To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.
  2. To pierce or wound with a stake.
  3. To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
  4. To provide (another) with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.
  5. To deposit and risk a considerable amount of cryptocurrency in order to participate in the proof of stake process of verification.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/steɪk/ en-us-stake.ogg

Word forms

stake stakes staking staked

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”). Cognate with Scots stak, staik, Saterland Frisian Stak, West Frisian staak, Dutch staak, Low German Stake, Norwegian stake, Spanish estaca.

Synonyms

peg bet hazard wager

Derived words

alestake bougar-stakes burn someone at the stake corkscrew stake drive a stake through its heart grub-stake grubstake macaroni stake maiden stake merestake pull up stakes ridstake stakebed stake boat stakebody stakebuilding stake-driver Stakeford stakehead stakeholder stakeholding stakehole stakelike stakenet stake of Zion Stake Pool stakewall sweepstake swoopstake table stakes torture stake at stake restake stake a claim stake one's life stake out stakeout staker
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