English

Adjective

stale ‎(comparative staler, superlative stalest)

1. (alcohol, obsolete) Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
   • c. 1300, K. Horn (Laud), 383:

     Bi forn þe king abenche Red win to schenche And after mete stale Boþe win and ale.

   • c. 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 52:

     Notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste or stale

2. No longer fresh, in reference to food, urine, straw, wounds, etc.
   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 325 2:

     Stale as breed or drinke is, rassis. Stale as meate is that begynneth to savoure, viel.

   • c. 1550, Wyll of Deuill, C 2 b:

     New freshe blood to ouersprinkle their stale mete that it may seme...newly kylled.

3. No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; cliche, hackneyed, dated.
   • 1562, in J. Heywood, Proverbs & Epigrams (1867), 95:

     Better is...be it new or stale, A harmelesse lie, than a harmefull true tale.

   • 1579, in G. Harvey, letter book, 60:

     Doist thou smyle to reade this stale and beggarlye stuffe.

   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, I ii 133:

     How wary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable Seeme to me all the vses of this world?

   • 1822 March, Charles Lamb, London Magazine, 284 1:

     A two-days-old newspaper. You resent the stale thing as an affront.

4. No longer nubile or suitable for marriage, in reference to people; past one's prime.
   • c. 1580, J. Jeffere, Bugbears, I ii 108:

     Rosimunda...hathe an vncle a stale batcheler.

   • 1742, T. Short, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 42 226:

     In barren Women, and stale Maids, Tapping should be very cautiously undertaken.

5. (agriculture, obsolete) Fallow, in reference to land.
   • 1764, Museum Rusticum, II 306:

     Lime would do very little or no good on stale ploughed lands.

6. (law) Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.

   a stale affidavit

   a stale demand

   • 1769, William Blackstone, Common Laws of England, IV xv 211:

     The jury will rarely give credit to a stale complaint.

7. Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.
   • 1856, "Stonehenge", Manual of British Rural Sports, II i vi §7 335:

     By this means the [horse's] legs are not made more stale than necessary.

   • 1885 May 28, Truth, 853 2:

     Dame Agnes will probably be stale after her exertions in the Derby.

8. (finance) Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.
   • 1901, Business Terms & Phrases second edition, 199:

     Stale cheque,...a cheque which has remained unpaid for some considerable time.

Usage notes

In the third sense regarding food, usually (but not always) pejorative and synonymous with gone bad and turned. In reference to mead, wine, and bread, it can describe an acceptable or desired state (see: crouton). In modern English, however, "stale beer" has been light struck, flat, or oxidized and is to be avoided.

Synonyms

• see also Wikisaurus:hackneyed

Antonyms

• fresh

Derived terms

Related terms

• go stale
• stale drunk

Translations

Noun

stale ‎(plural stales)

1. (colloquial) Something stale; a loaf of bread or the like that is no longer fresh.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, II iii 39:

     I went to Riggs's batty-cake shop, and asked 'em for a penneth of the cheapest and nicest stales, that were all but blue-mouldy, but not quite.

   • 1937, George Orwell, Road to Wigan Pier, I i 15:

     Frayed-looking sweet-cakes...bought as ‘stales’ from the baker.

Verb

stale ‎(third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (of alcohol, obsolete, transitive) To make stale; to age in order to clear and strengthen (a drink, especially beer).
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stalyn, or make stale drynke, defeco.

   • 1826, Art of Brewing, second edition, 106:

     A stock of old porter should be kept, sufficient for staling the consumption of twelve months.

2. (transitive) To make stale; to cause to go out of fashion or currency; to diminish the novelty or interest of, particularly by excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Fountaine of Self-love, 36:

     Ile goe tell all the Argument of his Play aforehand, and so stale his Inuention to the Auditory before it come foorth.

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humor, I iv:

     Not content To stale himselfe in all societies, He makes my house as common as a Mart.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, II ii 241:

     Age cannot wither her, nor custome stale Her infinite variety.

   • 1863, W. W. Story, Roba di Roma, I i 7:

     Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description.

3. (intransitive) To become stale; to grow odious from excessive exposure or consumption.
   • 1717, E. Erskine, Serm. in Wks., 50 1:

     They have got so much of Christ as to be staled of his company.

   • 1893, "Q", Delectable Duchy, 325:

     Philanthropy was beginning to stale.

4. (alcohol, intransitive) To become stale; to grow unpleasant from age.
   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer, 4th ed., I 64:

     The Drink from that Time flattens and stales.

Derived terms

• antistaling

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Old English stalu, from Proto-Germanic *stal-. The development was paralleled by the ablaut which became English steal, from Middle English stele, from Old English stela, from Proto-Germanic *stel-.^[2] The latter also produced Greek στελεός (steleós, "handle") and Latin stēla, which became English stele and stela.

Noun

stale ‎(plural stales)

1. A long, thin handle, as of rakes, axes, etc.
   • 12th century, Sidonius Glosses in Anecd. Oxon., I v 59 22:

     Ansae et ansulae alicuius rei sunt illa eminentia in illa re per quam capi possit .i. ‘stale’.

   • c. 1393, Langland, Piers Plowman (Vesp. MS), C xxii 279:

     And lerede men a ladel bygge with a long stale.

   • 1742, W. Ellis, London & Country Brewer 4th ed., I 61:

     In Case your Cask is a Butt,...have ready boiling...Water, which put in, and, with a long Stale and a little Birch fastened to its End, scrub the Bottom.

   • 1890 February 4, Manchester Guardian, 12 3:

     You came to me with the axe head in one hand and the stale in the other.

2. (dialectal) The posts and rungs composing a ladder.
   • 13th century, Ancrene Riwle, 160:

     Scheome. and pine...beoð þe two leddre stalen. þet beoð upriht to þe heouene. and bitweonen þeos stalen beoð þe tindes i-vestned of alle gode þeauwes. bi hwuche me climbeð to þe blisse of heouene.

   • c. 1315, Shoreham Poems, I 49:

     Þis ilke laddre is charite, Þe stales gode þeawis.

   • 1887, W. D. Parish & al., Kentish Dial.

     Stales, the staves, or risings of a ladder, or the staves of a rack in a stable.

3. (botany, obsolete) The stem of a plant.
4. The shaft of an arrow, spear, etc.
   • 1553, J. Brende translating Q. Curtius Rufus, Hist., IX

     The Surgians cut of the stale of that shaft in suche wise, that they moued not the heade that was wythin the fleshe.

   • c. 1611, G. Chapman translating Homer, Iliad, IV 173:

     ...seeing th'arrowes stale without.

Alternative forms

• stele (botanical, preferred)
• steal, stele (dialectal)
• steel, stail (archaic)

Synonyms

• handle (grip of tools, generally)
• haft (handle of axes)
• shaft (body of arrows, spears, etc.)
• stem (plants)

Translations

Verb

stale ‎(third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To make a ladder by joining rungs ("stales") between the posts.
   • 1492 in Archæol. Cant., XVI 304:

     For stalyng of the ladders of the Churche xx d.

Etymology 3

From Middle English stail, from Old French estal ‎(“place, something placed”) (compare French étal), from Frankish stal,^[3] from Proto-Germanic *stallo-, earlier *staþlo-. Related to stall and stand.

Noun

stale ‎(plural stales)

1. (military, obsolete) A fixed position, particularly a soldier's in a battle-line.
   • c. 1450, in C. L. Kingsford, Chrons. London (1905), 123:

     And at pavelen...þe Erle of Dorzet helde is stale, and þer he toke prisoners.

   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, V xi 179

     And syr Florence with his C knyghtes alwey kepte the stale and foughte manly.

2. (chess, uncommon) A stalemate; a stalemated game.
   • 1423, Kingis Quair, CLXIX:

     ‘Off mate?’ quod sche...‘thou has fundin stale This mony day’.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Essays, 65

     They stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre.

3. (military, obsolete) An ambush.
   • c. 1425, Wyntoun Cron., IX viii 811:

     And he in stale howyd al stil.

   • 1513, G. Douglas translating Virgil, Æneid, XI x 96:

     It is a stelling place and sovir harbry, Quhar ost in staill or embuschment may ly.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Chron., II 1479 2:

     The erle of Essex...with .ii. C. speares was layde in a stale, if the Frenchmen had come neerer.

4. (obsolete) A band of armed men or hunters.
   • c. 1350, in N. H. Nicolas, Hist. Royal Navy (1847), II 491:

     [Every time that it shall be ordered..that armed men..shall land on the enemy's coast to seek victuals... then there shall be ordained a sufficient ‘stale’ of armed men and archers who shall wait together on the land until the ‘forreiours’ return to them].

   • 14th century, Morte Arthur, 1355:

     [Gawayne] sterttes owtte to hys stede, and with his stale wendes.

   • c. 1540, J. Bellenden translating H. Boece, Hyst. & Cron. Scotl., XII xvi 184:

     The staill past throw the wod with sic noyis...yat all the bestis wer rasit fra thair dennys.

   • 1577, R. Holinshed, Hist. Scotl., 471 2 in Chron., I:

     The Lard of Drunlanrig lying al thys while in ambush...forbare to breake out to gyue anye charge vppon his enimies, doubting least the Earle of Lennox hadde kept a stale behynde.

5. (Scotland, military, obsolete) The main force of an army.
   • 1532 in 1836, State Papers Henry VIII, IV 626:

     Neveryeles I knaw asweill by Englisemen as Scottishmen that their stale was no les then thre thowsand men.

Derived terms

Adjective

stale ‎(not comparable)

1. (chess, obsolete) At a standstill; stalemated.
   • c. 1470, Ashmolean MS 344, 21:

     Then drawith he & is stale.

Verb

stale ‎(third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (chess, uncommon, transitive) To stalemate.
   • c. 1470, Ashmole MS 344, 7:

     He shall stale þe black kyng in the pointe þer the crosse standith.

   • 1903, H. J. R. Murray, Brit. Chess. Mag., 283:

     In China, however, a player who stales his opponent's King, wins the game.

2. (chess, obsolete, intransitive) To be stalemated.
   • 1597, A. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 202:

     For vnder cuire I got sik check, that I micht neither muife nor neck, bot ather stale or mait.

Etymology 4

Uncertain. Perhaps Old French estaler, related to the Middle High German stallen ‎(“to piss”).^[4]

Noun

stale ‎(uncountable)

1. (livestock, obsolete) Urine, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 14th c., Stockh. Medical MS. in Anglia XVIII.299:

     In werd ben men & women […] þat þer stale mown not holde.

   • 1535, Miles Coverdale translating the Bible, "Isaiah", XXXVI.100:

     […] That they be not compelled to eate their owne donge, and drinke their owne stale with you?

   • 1548, Robert Record, Vrinal of Physick, XI.89:

     The stale of Camels and Goats […] is good for them that have the dropsie.

   • 1583, B. Melbancke, Philotimus:

     Or annoint thy selfe with the stale of a mule.

   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, I.48:

     Those of Crotta being hardly besieged by Metellus, were reduced to so hard a pinch, and strait necessitie of all manner of other beverage, that they were forced to drinke the stale or urine of their horses.

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, I.iv.62:

     Thou did'st drinke The stale of Horses.

   • 1698, J. Fryer, New Acct. E.-India & Persia, p.242:

     Mice and Weasels by their poysonous Stale infect the Trees so, that they produce Worms.

   • 1733, W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farming, p.122:

     Sheep, whose Dung and Stale is of most Virtue in the Nourishment of all Trees.

Derived terms

Verb

stale ‎(third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (livestock, obsolete, intransitive) To urinate, especially used of horses and cattle.
   • 15th century, Lawis Gild, X in Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland, 68:

     Gif ony stal in the yet of the gilde...he sall gif iiijd. to the mendis.

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'éclaircissement de la langue française, 732 1:

     Tary a whyle, your hors wyll staale.

   • 1631, Ben Jonson, Bartholmew Fayre I iv 64:

     Why a pox o' your boxe, once againe: let your little wife stale in it, and she will.

   • 1663, T. Killigrew, Parson's Wedding, I iii:

     I wonder [the knight's son] doth not go on all four too, and hold up his Leg when he stales.

   • 1903, Rudyard Kipling, Five Nations, 150:

     Cattle-dung where fuel failed; Water where the mules had staled; And sackcloth for their raiment.

   • c. 1920, Aleister Crowley, "Leigh Sublime":

     You stale like a mare
     And fart as you stale

   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, page 35:

     A mile or two before we got to the meet he stopped at an inn, where he put our horses into the stable for twenty minutes, ‘to give them a chance to stale’.

Usage notes

Occasionally transitive, when in reference to horses or men pissing blood.

Etymology 5

Probably from uncommon Anglo-Norman estale ‎(“pigeon used to lure hawks”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic, probably *standaną ‎(“to stand”). Compare Old English stælhran ‎(“decoy reindeer”) and Northumbrian stællo ("catching fish").^[5]

Noun

stale ‎(plural stales)

1. (falconry, hunting, obsolete) A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.
   • c. 1440, Promp. Parv., 472 1:

     Stale, of fowlynge or byrdys takynge, stacionaria.

   • 1579, Thomas North, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, "Sylla", 515:

     Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.

   • 1608, R. Tofte translating Ludovico Ariosto, Satyres, IV 56:

     A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.

2. (obsolete) Any lure, particularly in reference to people used as live bait.
   • c. 1529, "The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng", 324, in John Skelton, Certayne Bokes:

     She ran in all the hast
     Vnbrased and vnlast...
     It was a stale to take
     the deuyll in a brake.

   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles, "The Historie of England, from the Time that It Was First Inhabited, Vntill the Time that It Was Last Conquered", 79 2:

     The Britaynes woulde oftentimes...lay their Cattell...in places conueniente, to bee as a stale to the Romaynes, and when the Romaynes shoulde make to them to fetche the same away,...they would fall vpon them.

   • 1579, J. Stubbs, Discouerie Gaping Gulf

     Her daughter Margerit was the stale to lure...them that otherwise flewe hyghe...and could not be gotten.

   • 1615, George Sandys, A Relation of a Iourney begun An: Dom: 1610, I 66:

     ...many of the Coffamen keeping beaytifull boyes, who ſerue as ſtales to procure them cuſtomers.

   • 1670, J. Eachard, Grounds Contempt of Clergy, 88:

     Six-pence or a shilling to put into the Box, for a stale to decoy in the rest of the Parish.

3. (crime, obsolete) An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.
   • 1526, W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection, III:

     Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.

   • 1633, S. Marmion, Fine Compan., III iv:

     This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.

4. (obsolete) a partner whose beloved abandons or torments him in favor of another.
   • 1578, J. Lyly, Euphues, 33:

     I perceiue Lucilla (sayd he) that I was made thy stale, and Philautus thy laughinge stocke.

   • 1588, T. Hughes, Misfortunes Arthur, I ii 3:

     Was I then chose and wedded for his stale?

   • 1611, T. Middleton & al., Roaring Girle:

     Did I for this loose all my friends...to be made A stale to a common whore?

   • c. 1616, William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, II i 100:

     But, too vnruly Deere, he breakes the pale And feedes from home; poore I am but his stale.

   • c. 1640, J. Fletcher & al. Little French Lawyer, III iv:

     This comes of rutting: Are we made stales to one another?

5. (obsolete) A patsy, a pawn, someone used under some false pretext to forward another's (usu. sinister) designs; a stalking horse.
   • 1580, E. Grindal in 1710, J. Strype, Hist. E. Grindal, 252:

     That of the two nominated, one should be an unfit Man, and as it were a Stale, to bring the Office to the other.

   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 3, III iii 260:

     Had he none else to make a stale but me?

   • 1614, W. Raleigh, Hist. World, I iv iii §19 239:

     Eurydice...meaning nothing lesse than to let her husband serue as a Stale, keeping the throne warme till another were growne old enough to sit in it.

   • 1711, J. Puckle, Club 20:

     A pretence of kindness is the universal stale to all base projects.

6. (crime, obsolete) A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, II ii 23:

     Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.

   • 1606, S. Daniel, Queenes Arcadia, II i:

     But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?

   • c. 1641, Ralph Montagu, Acts & Monuments, 265:

     ...detesting as he said the insatiable impudency of a prostitute Stale.

7. (hunting, obsolete) Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.
   • 1681, J. Flavell, Method of Grace, XXXV 588:

     'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.

   • 1888, G. M. Fenn, Dick o' the Fens, 53:

     If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.

Verb

stale ‎(third-person singular simple present stales, present participle staling, simple past and past participle staled)

1. (rare, obsolete, transitive) To serve as a decoy, to lure.
   • 1557, Tottel's Misc., 198:

     The eye...Doth serue to stale her here and there where she doth come and go.

Anagrams

• astel, lates, least, leats, salet, setal, slate, steal, stela, taels, tales, teals, tesla

References

1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, adj. 1" & "n. 7".
2. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, n. 2" & "v. 4".
3. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, n. 4", "n. 6", "v. 3", and "adj. 2".
4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, n. 5" and "v. 1".
5. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, n. 3" & "v. 5".

Friulian

Etymology

Of Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stallaz. Compare Romansh stalla, stala, Italian stalla, Venetian stała.

Noun

stale f ‎(plural stalis)

1. cowshed
2. stable, stall
3. pigsty

Synonyms

• (cowshed): vacjarìe

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English stalu ‎(“theft”), from Proto-Germanic *stal-.^[1]

Noun

stale

1. theft; the act of stealing
   • 1340, Ayenbite 9:

     Ine þise heste is vorbode roberie, þiefþe, stale, and gavel.

2. stealth (used in the phrase bi stale)
   • c. 1240, Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom., 249:

     Hire wune is to cumen bi stale...hwen me least cweneð.

References

1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "Stale, n. 1".

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstalɛ/

Adverb

stale

1. constantly, continually

Related terms

• stały

--- -sche (discuss) 21:12, 16 July 2015 (UTC)