stake

From Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”). Cognate with Scots stak, staik, Saterland Frisian Stak, West Frisian staak, Dutch staak, Low German Stake, Norwegian stake.

• IPA^(key): /steɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: steak
• Rhymes: -eɪk

stake (plural stakes)

1. A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.

   We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden

     A sharpened stake strong Dryas found.

2. (croquet) A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
3. A stick inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.
4. (with definite article) The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned.

   Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.

5. A share or interest in a business or a given situation.

   The owners let the managers eventually earn a stake in the business.

6. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
7. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
8. (Mormonism) A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Schaff-Herzog Encyc.

     Every city, or stake, including a chief town and surrounding towns, has its president, with two counselors; and this president has a high council of chosen men.

• (croquet): peg

• stakeholder

• burn at the stake
• pull up stakes
• stake of Zion
• (wager or pledge): at stake

stake (third-person singular simple present stakes, present participle staking, simple past and past participle staked)

1. (transitive) To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.

   to stake vines or plants

2. (transitive) To pierce or wound with a stake.
   • 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner

     You see, I'd made a bargain with him to buy the horse for a hundred and twenty—a swinging price, but I always liked the horse. And what does he do but go and stake him—fly at a hedge with stakes in it, atop of a bank with a ditch before it.

   • 2014, A. J. Gallant, Dracula: Hearts of Stone

     “You ladies happen to notice what happened to this vampire? This just happened. Did you see who staked him?”

3. (transitive) To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Alexander Pope

     I'll stake yon lamb, that near the fountain plays.

4. (transitive) To provide another with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.

   John went broke, so to keep him playing, Jill had to stake him.

   His family staked him $10,000 to get his business started.

• (put at risk): bet, hazard, wager

• stake a claim
• stake out

• “stake” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• Keast, Keats, kates, ketas, skate, steak, takes, teaks

stake

1. (archaic) singular past subjunctive of steken
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of staken

• kaste

From Old Swedish staki, from Old Norse staki, from Proto-Germanic *stakô, from Proto-Indo-European *steg-.

stake c

1. (short for ljusstake) candlestick
2. (vulgar) erection
3. (vulgar) erect penis
4. (slang, uncountable) balls; courage, assertiveness

• ljusstake
• adventsljusstake