S T A 
His fell heart thought long that little way. 
Griev'd with each step, tormented with each stay. Fairfax. 
Restraint; prudence; caution; discreet steadiness; so¬ 
briety of judgment. 
For her son 
In her own hand the crown she kept in store, 
Till riper years he raught, and stronger stay. Spenser. 
Many just and temperate provisos, well showed and fore¬ 
tokened the wisdom, stay and moderation of the king. 
Bacon. —-A fixed state. 
Who have before, or shall write after thee. 
Their works though toughly laboured will be 
Like infancy or age to man’s firm stay. 
Or early and late twilights to mid-day. Donne. 
A prop; a support.—Obedience of creatures unto the law 
of nature is the stay of the whole world. Hooker. 
What surety of the world, what hope, what stay. 
When this was once a king, and now is clay. Shakspeare. 
Tackling that fixes and supports the masts. 
With stays and cordage last he rigg’d a ship, 
And, roll’d on levers, launch’d her in the deep. Pope. 
Steadiness of conduct. 
ST AWED, part. adj. Fixed; settled; serious; not vola¬ 
tile.—Whatsoever is above these proceedeth of shortness of 
memory or of want of a stayed and equal attention. Bacon. 
STAWEDLY, adv. Composedly; gravely; prudently; 
soberly; calmly; judiciously. 
STA'YEDNESS, s. Solidity ; weight.—When substantial¬ 
ness combineth with delightfulness, and currentness with 
stayedness, how can the language sound other than most 
full of sweetness ? Camden.-— Composure ; prudence ; gra¬ 
vity; judiciousness.—Jesting—is a thing much unbeseeming 
the stayedness of a Christian Whatcly. 
STAWER, s. One who stops, holds or supports. 
May Jove, the guardian of the capitol. 
He, the great stayer of our troops in rout. 
Fulfil your hopes, and animate the cohorts. A. Philips. 
STAWLACE, s. A lace with which women fasten their 
boddice.—A staylace from England should become a topic 
for censure at visits. Swift. 
STA'YLESS, adj. Without stop or delay. 
They fled the field 
With stai/ess steppes, each one his life to shield. 
Mir. for. Mag. 
STAYLEY BRIDGE, a parish of England, in Cheshire, 
situated on the river Teame, over which there is an excellent 
stone bridge; 8 miles north-east of Stockport. Population 
1104. 
STAWMAKER. .5. One that follows the trade of making 
stays. Mason. —Our ladies choose to be shaped by the 
staymaker. Spence. 
STAYS, s. pi. Without singular: bodice; a kind of stiff 
waistcoat made of whalebone, worn by women.—No stub¬ 
born stays her yielding shape embrace. Gay. —Ropes in 
a ship to keep the mast from falling aft.—All roasts, 
topmasts and flagstaves, have stays, except the spritsail top¬ 
mast : the mainmast, foremast, with the masts belonging to 
them, have also back stays, which help to keep the mast 
from pitching forward or overboard. Harris. —[peabe, Sax.] 
Station ; fixed anchorage.—They were come upon the stays, 
when one of the sailors descried a galley. Sidney. 
Our ships lay anchor’d close : nor needed we 
Feare harme on any staies. Chapman. 
Any support; any thing that keeps another extended.— 
Weavers, stretch our stays upon the weft. Dry den. 
To STAW, v. n. [ staa, Su. Goth., to stand. ] To be 
fixed or set; to stand still. Applied, in some parts of the 
north, to a cart when fixed in a rut; and to the stomach, 
when it is crammed. 
Vox.. XXIII. No. 1589. 
S T E 545 
STEAD, sted, being in the name of a place that is dis¬ 
tant from any river, comes from the Saxon peeb, peyb, a 
place ; but if it be not upon the river or harhour, it is to be 
derived from pta3e, a shore or station for ships. Gibson. 
STEAD, s. [stads, Goth.; pceb, Sax.; sted, Dan. and 
Germ.; sfede, Dutch.] Place. Obsolete in writing; but 
retained in our northern dialect; as it lies in such a stead. 
Fly therefore, fly this fearful stead anon. 
Lest thy foolhardize work thy sad confusion. Spenser. 
They nigh approached to the stead 
Where as those mermaids dwelt. Spenser 
Room; place which another had or might have. It is 
scarcely used but with the preposition in. —If we had taken 
them clean away, or else removed them, so as to place in 
their stead others, we had done worse. Hooker —Use; 
help. To stand in stead; to be of great use; to help; to 
advantage.—A compleat man hath some parts, whereof the 
want could not deprive him of his essence ; yet to have them 
standeth him in singular stead, in respect of special uses 
Hooker. —The frame of a bed. 
The genial bed, 
Sallow the feet, the borders and the sted. Dryden. 
To STEAD, v. a. To help; to advantage; to support; 
to assist. A word somewhat obsolete. —We are neither in 
skill, nor ability of power greatly to stead you. Sidney. 
It nothing steads us 
To chide him from our eyes. Shakspeare . 
To fill the place of another. Obsolete. —We shall advise 
this wronged maid to stead up our appointment, and go in 
your place. Shakspeare. 
STEA'DFAST, adj. [peebpaepce, Sax.] Fast in place; 
firm; fixed. 
How reverend is the face of this tall pile. 
Whose massy pillars rear their aged heads 
To bear aloft its arch’d and pond’rous roof. 
By its own weight made steadfast and immoveable. 
Looking tranquillity ; it strikes an awe 
And terror on my aking sight. Congreve. 
Constant; resolute. 
I hope her stubborn heart to bend, 
And that it then more stedfast will endure. Spenser. 
Be faithful to thy neighbour in his poverty; abide sted¬ 
fast unto him in the time of his trouble. Ecclus. —Him 
resist stedfast in the faith. 1 Pet. —Not turned aside by 
fear. 
What form of death could him affright, 
Who unconcem’d, with stedfast Sight, 
Cou’d view the surges mounting steep, 
And monsters rolling in the deep ? Dryden. 
STEA'DFASTLY, adv. Firmly; constantly.—God’s 
omniscience steadfastly grasps the greatest and most slip¬ 
pery uncertainties. South. 
STEA'DFASTNESS, s. Immutability; fixedness. 
So hard these heavenly beauties be enfir’d, 
As things divine, least passions do impress. 
The more of steadfast minds to be admir'd, 
The more they stayed be on stedfastness. Spenser. 
Firmness; constancy; resolution 
STEA'DILY, adv. Without tottering; without shakiug. 
—Sin has a tendency to bring men under evils, unless hin¬ 
dered by some accident, which no man can steadily build 
upon. South. —Without variation or irregularity. 
So steadily does fickle fortune steer 
Th’ obedient orb that it should never err. Blackmore. 
STEA'DINESS, s. [ptebignyppe, Sax.] State of being 
not tottering nor easily shaken.—Firmness; constancy.— 
John got the better of his choleric temper, and wrought him¬ 
self up to a great steadiness of mind, to pursue his interest 
through all impediments. Arbuthnot. —Consistent unva¬ 
ried conduct.— Steadiness is a point of prudence as well as 
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