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Webster 1913 Edition


Stead

Stead

(stĕd)
,
Noun.
[OE.
stede
place, AS.
stede
; akin to LG. & D.
stede
, OS.
stad
,
stedi
, OHG.
stat
, G.
statt
,
stätte
, Icel.
staðr
, Dan.
sted
, Sw.
stad
, Goth.
staþs
, and E.
stand
. √163. See
Stand
, and cf.
Staith
,
Stithy
.]
1.
Place, or spot, in general.
[Obs., except in composition.]
Chaucer.
Fly, therefore, fly this fearful
stead
anon.
Spenser.
2.
Place or room which another had, has, or might have.
“Stewards of your steads.”
Piers Plowman.
In
stead
of bounds, he a pillar set.
Chaucer.
3.
A frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.
[R.]
The genial bed,
Sallow the feet, the borders, and the
stead
.
Dryden.
4.
A farmhouse and offices.
[Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
☞ The word is now commonly used as the last part of a compound; as, farmstead, homestead, roadstead, etc.
In stead of
,
in place of. See
Instead
.
To stand in stead
, or
To do stead
,
to be of use or great advantage.
The smallest act . . . shall
stand
us
in
great
stead
.
Atterbury.
Here thy sword can
do
thee little
stead
.
Milton.

Stead

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To help; to support; to benefit; to assist.
Perhaps my succour or advisement meet,
Mote
stead
you much your purpose to subdue.
Spenser.
It nothing
steads
us
To chide him from our eaves.
Shakespeare
2.
To fill the place of.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition


Stead

STEAD

, STED,
Noun.
[G. See Stay.]
1.
Place; in general.
Fly this fearful stead.
[In this sense not used.]
2.
Place or room which another had or might have, noting substitution, replacing or filling the place of another, as, David died and Solomon reigned in his sted.
God hath appointed me another seed in stead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Genesis 4.
3.
The frame on which a bed is laid.
Sallow the feet, the borders and the sted.
[But we never use this word by itself in this sense. We always use bedstead.]
To stand in sted, to be of use or great advantage.
The smallest act of charity shall stand us in great stead.

STEAD

, STED, in names of places distant from a river or the sea, signifies place, as above; but in names of places situated on a river or harbor, it is from Sax. Stathe, border, bank, shore, Both words perhaps are from one root.

Definition 2024


stead

stead

English

Noun

stead (plural steads)

  1. (obsolete) A place, or spot, in general. [10th-16th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene, II:
      For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around [].
  2. (obsolete) A place where a person normally rests; a seat. [10th-18thc.]
    • 1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island:
      There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads.
  3. (obsolete) A specific place or point on a body or other surface. [11th-15thc.]
  4. (obsolete) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc. [13th-16thc.]
  5. (obsolete) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm. [14th-19thc.]
    • 1889, H. Rider Haggard, Allan's Wife:
      But of course I could not do this by myself, so I took a Hottentot—a very clever man when he was not drunk—who lived on the stead, into my confidence.
  6. (obsolete) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. [15th-19thc.]
    • John Dryden (1631-1700)
      The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.
  7. (in phrases, now literary) The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor. [from 15thc.]
    • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion:
      She was so wretched and so vehement, complained so much of injustice in being expected to go away instead of Anne; Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best right to stay in Henrietta's stead!
    • 1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, page 285:
      His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats []
    • 2011, "Kin selection", The Economist, 31 March:
      Had Daniel Ortega not got himself illegally on to this year’s ballot to seek a third term, his wife might have run in his stead.
  8. Figuratively, an emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases). [from 15thc.]
    • 2010, Dan van der Vat, The Guardian, 19 September:
      Though small and delicate-looking, she gave an impression of intense earnestness and latent toughness, qualities that stood her in good stead when she dared to challenge the most intrusive communist society in eastern Europe.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stead (third-person singular simple present steads, present participle steading, simple past and past participle steaded)

  1. To help; to support; to benefit; to assist.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2
      Some food we had and some fresh water that / A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, / Out of his charity,—who being then appointed / Master of this design,—did give us, with / Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, / Which since have steaded much: [...]
  2. To fill place of.

Translations

Anagrams