Staple

8 definitions found

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

  Staple \Sta"ple\ (st[=a]"p'l), n. [AS. stapul, stapol, stapel, a
     step, a prop, post, table, fr. stapan to step, go, raise;
     akin to D. stapel a pile, stocks, emporium, G. stapela heap,
     mart, stake, staffel step of a ladder, Sw. stapel, Dan.
     stabel, and E. step; cf. OF. estaple a mart, F. ['e]tape. See
     {Step}.]


     1. A settled mart; an emporium; a city or town to which
        merchants brought commodities for sale or exportation in
        bulk; a place for wholesale traffic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having
              been the staple of the Indian trade.  --Arbuthnot.
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              For the increase of trade and the encouragement of
              the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was
              minded to erect the town into a staple for wool.
                                                    --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: In England, formerly, the king's staple was established
           in certain ports or towns, and certain goods could not
           be exported without being first brought to these places
           to be rated and charged with the duty payable to the
           king or the public. The principal commodities on which
           customs were levied were wool, skins, and leather; and
           these were originally the staple commodities.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence: Place of supply; source; fountain head.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news.
              Whenever there was a rumor that any thing important
              had happened or was about to happen, people hastened
              thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain
              head.                                 --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a
        principal commodity or production of a country or
        district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples
        of the United States.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We should now say, Cotton is the great staple, that
              is, the established merchandise, of Manchester.
                                                    --Trench.
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     4. The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
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     5. Unmanufactured material; raw material.
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     6. The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse
        staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. A loop of metal such as iron, or a bar or wire, bent and
        formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a
        hook, pin, or the like.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     8. Specifically: A small loop of metal such as steel, bent
        into a U-shape with the points sharpened, used to fasten
        sheets of paper together by driving the staple[8] through
        the stacked sheets and into a formed receptacle which
        curls the ends in and backward, thus holding the papers
        firmly together; also, a similar, slightly larger such
        fastener which may be driven into wood to fasten objects
        to a wooden backing.
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     9. (Mining)
        (a) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one,
            joining different levels.
        (b) A small pit.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     10. A district granted to an abbey. [Obs.] --Camden.
         [1913 Webster]

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

  Staple \Sta"ple\, a.
     1. Pertaining to, or being a market or staple for,
        commodities; as, a staple town. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled;
        as, a staple trade. --Dryden.
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     3. Fit to be sold; marketable. [R.] --Swift.
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     4. Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities;
        belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
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              Wool, the great staple commodity of England.
                                                    --Hallam.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  staple \sta"ple\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {stapled} (-p'ld); p. pr.
     & vb. n. {stapling}.]
     1. To sort according to its staple; as, to staple cotton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To fasten together with a staple[9] or staples; as, to
        staple a check to a letter.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  staple
       adj : necessary foods or commodities; "wheat is a staple crop"
       n 1: (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is
            constant [syn: {basic}]
       2: material suitable for manufacture or use or finishing [syn:
          {raw material}]
       3: a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables
       4: paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire
          that can fasten papers together
       v : secure or fasten with a staple or staples; "staple the
           papers together" [ant: {unstaple}]

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

  161 Moby Thesaurus words for "staple":
     anchored, article, article of commerce, article of merchandise,
     articulate, auto show, basic, basics, batten, batten down, bazaar,
     boat show, body, bolt, bonanza, buckle, bulk, butt, button,
     catalog goods, chief, clasp, cleat, clip, commercial complex,
     commodities, commodity, consumer goods, consumer items,
     conventional, core, cornucopia, corpus, critical, customary,
     dovetail, drug, effects, elementary, emporium, essential,
     essentials, exposition, eye, fair, fastened, feature, fixed,
     flea fair, flea market, font, fount, fountain, fundamental,
     fundamentals, gold mine, goods, goods for sale, habitual, hasp,
     hinge, hitch, hook, indispensable, inventory, item, jam, job lot,
     joint, latch, lead item, leader, line, line of goods, lock, lode,
     loss leader, mail-order goods, main, market, market overt,
     marketplace, mart, mass, material resources, materials, materiel,
     merchandise, mine, miter, mortise, nail, necessary, necessities,
     normal, open market, ordinary, peg, pin, plaza, prevailing,
     primary, principal, product, quarry, rabbet, raw material,
     required, requisite, resource, rialto, ring, rivet, riveted, scarf,
     screw, seconds, set, settled, sew, shopping center, shopping mall,
     shopping plaza, show, sideline, skewer, snap, source,
     source of supply, special, spring, standard, standard article,
     staple item, staples, stated, stick, stitch, stock, stock-in-trade,
     store, street market, stuff, substance, substances, supply, tack,
     toggle, trade fair, universal, usual, vein, vendible, vendibles,
     vital, ware, wares, wedge, well, wellspring, zipper
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  STAPLE
       
           A programming language written at Manchester
          (University?) and used at {ICL} in the early 1970s for writing
          the test suites.  STAPLE was based on {Algol 68} and had a
          very advanced {optimising compiler}.
       
          (2003-02-28)
       
       

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  Staple
       
          Saint Andrews Applicative Persistent Language.  Language
          combining functional programming with persistent storage,
          developed at St. Andrews University in Scotland.  Tony Davie,
          .
       
       

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  STAPLE, intern. law. The right of staple as exercised by a people upon 
  foreign merchants, is defined to be, that they may not allow them to set 
  their merchandises and wares to sale but in a certain place. 
       2. This practice is not in use in the United States. 1 Chit. Com. Law, 
  103; 4 Inst. 238; Malone, Lex Mere. 237; Bac. Ab. Execution, B 1. Vide 
  Statute Staple.