Staid

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Staid \Staid\ (st[=a]d),
     imp. & p. p. of {Stay}.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Staid \Staid\, a. [From {Stay} to stop.]
     Sober; grave; steady; sedate; composed; regular; not wild,
     volatile, flighty, or fanciful. "Sober and staid persons."
     --Addison.
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           O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. --Milton.
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     Syn: Sober; grave; steady; steadfast; composed; regular;
          sedate.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stay \Stay\ (st[=a]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stayed} (st[=a]d) or
     {Staid} (st[=a]d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Staying}.] [OF. estayer,
     F. ['e]tayer to prop, fr. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai, a prop,
     probably fr. OD. stade, staeye, a prop, akin to E. stead; or
     cf. stay a rope to support a mast. Cf. {Staid}, a., {Stay},
     v. i.]
     1. To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to
        hold up; to support.
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              Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the
              one side, and the other on the other side. --Ex.
                                                    xvii. 12.
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              Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found
              To stay thy vines.                    --Dryden.
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     2. To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to
        satisfy in part or for the time.
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              He has devoured a whole loaf of bread and butter,
              and it has not staid his stomach for a minute. --Sir
                                                    W. Scott.
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     3. To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist
        successfully.
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              She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
              Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes. --Shak.
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     4. To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to
        stop; to hold.
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              Him backward overthrew and down him stayed
              With their rude hands and grisly grapplement.
                                                    --Spenser.
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              All that may stay their minds from thinking that
              true which they heartily wish were false. --Hooker.
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     5. To hinder; to delay; to detain; to keep back.
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              Your ships are stayed at Venice.      --Shak.
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              This business staid me in London almost a week.
                                                    --Evelyn.
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              I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that
              appeared to me new.                   --Locke.
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     6. To remain for the purpose of; to wait for. "I stay dinner
        there." --Shak.
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     7. To cause to cease; to put an end to.
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              Stay your strife.                     --Shak.
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              For flattering planets seemed to say
              This child should ills of ages stay.  --Emerson.
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     8. (Engin.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a
        flat sheet in a steam boiler.
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     9. (Naut.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of
        the vessel shall be presented to the wind.
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     {To stay a mast} (Naut.), to incline it forward or aft, or to
        one side, by the stays and backstays.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  staid
       adj : characterized by dignity and propriety [syn: {sedate}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  62 Moby Thesaurus words for "staid":
     arid, barren, calm, collected, composed, cool, decorous, demure,
     dignified, dry, dull, earnest, earthbound, formal, frowning, grave,
     grim, grim-faced, grim-visaged, infecund, infertile, literal,
     long-faced, moderate, mundane, no-nonsense, priggish, prim,
     prosaic, prosing, prosy, quiet, restrained, rigid, sedate, serious,
     serious-minded, smug, sober, sober-minded, sobersided, solemn,
     somber, starchy, stiff, stolid, stone-faced, straight-faced,
     stuffy, temperate, thoughtful, unfanciful, unideal, unimaginative,
     uninspired, uninventive, unoriginal, unpoetic, unromantic,
     unromanticized, unsmiling, weighty