\Stave\, n. [From {Staff}, and corresponding to the pl.
staves. See {Staff}.]
1. 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.
2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the
   bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.
3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
         Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero
         brave.                                --Wordsworth.
4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and
   between which musical notes are written or pointed; the
   staff. [Obs.]
{Stave jointer}, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.

\Stave\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Staved}or {Stove}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Staving}.] [From {Stave}, n., or {Staff}, n.]
1. 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.
2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off.
         The condition of a servant staves him off to a
         distance.                             --South.
3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with
   off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.
         And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or
         guilties, to stave off a chance That breaks upon
         them perilously.                      --Tennyson.
4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
         All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys.
5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles.
6. 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 stave and tail}, in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose
   with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to
   hold back the dog by the tail. --Nares.

\Stave\, v. i.
To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash
into fragments.
      Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank.
                                               --Longfellow.