stale
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L28004 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333117 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /steɪl/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“place, something placed”) (compare French étal), from Frankish stal, from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, earlier *staþlaz. Related to stall and stand.
- At a standstill; stalemated.
“Then drawith he & is stale.”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), 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”).
- A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.
“Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.”
“A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.”
- Any lure, particularly in reference to people used as live bait.
“She ran in all the hast Vnbrased and vnlast... It was a stale to take the deuyll in a brake.”
“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.”
- An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.
“Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.”
“This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.”
- a partner whose beloved abandons or torments him in favor of another.
“I perceiue Lucilla (sayd he) that I was made thy stale, and Philautus thy laughinge stocke.”
“Was I then chose and wedded for his stale?”
- A patsy, a pawn, someone used under some false pretext to forward another's (usu. sinister) designs; a stalking horse.
“That of the two nominated, one should be an unfit Man, and as it were a Stale, to bring the Office to the other.”
“Had he none else to make a stale but me?”
- A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.
“Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.”
“But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?”
- Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.
“'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.”
“If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), 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”).
- To serve as a decoy, to lure.
“The eye...Doth serue to stale her here and there where she doth come and go.”