/steɪd͡ʒ/
OriginFrom Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.
- A phase.
“He is in the recovery stage of his illness.”
“Completion of an identifiable stage of maintenance such as removing an aircraft engine for repair or storage.”
“Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society.”
- broadlyOne of the portions of a device (such as a rocket or thermonuclear weapon) which are used or activated in a particular order, one after another.
“The first stage of the launcher burned out and separated after successfully boosting the payload onto a suborbital trajectory, but the engine of the upper stage failed to ignite to place the satellite”
- A platform; a surface, generally elevated, upon which show performances or other public events are given.
“The band returned to the stage to play an encore.”
“Knights, squires, and steeds must enter on the stage.”
“Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, / Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.”
- A floor or storey of a house.
- A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, etc.; scaffolding; staging.
- A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
- A stagecoach, an enclosed horsedrawn carriage used to carry passengers; the service that such coaches provide; a company that operates such service.
“The stage pulled into town carrying the payroll for the mill and three ladies.”
“In the 1880s he ran a stage that connected various interior towns with the coastal port.”
“I went in the sixpenny stage.”
- datedA place of rest on a regularly travelled road; a station, way station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
- datedA degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road.
“a stage of ten miles”
“A stage […] signifies a certain distance on a road.”
“He travelled by gig, with his wife, his favourite horse performing the journey by easy stages.”
- The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
“a 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter”
- The place on a microscope where the slide is located for viewing.
“He placed the slide on the stage.”
- A level; one of the areas making up the game.
“How do you get past the flying creatures in the third stage?”
“Additionally, popular supporting characters make cameos on certain stages, such as in Smashville, where you'll find Tom Nook and other familiar faces from Animal Crossing.”
- A place where anything is publicly exhibited, or a remarkable affair occurs; the scene.
“When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this stage of fools.”
“Ere while of Muſick, and Ethereal mirth,
Wherewith the ſtage of Ayr and Earth did ring,”
“Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any cons”
- The succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic time scale.
- Canada, QuebecAn internship.
- The notional space within which stereo sounds are positioned, determining where they will appear to come from when played back.
“This way, we simply stretch the image of a monophonic sound across a wider area on the stereo stage and create an altogether bigger impression.”
- metonymically, uncountable, with-definite-articleThe profession of an actor.
“In other professions in which men engage / (Said I to myself, said I), / The Army, the Navy, the Church and the Stage / (Said I to myself, said I)”
- An unpaid internship in a restaurant where a cook or chef is exposed to new culinary techniques.
“It doesn’t matter that recent reporting on the stage economy of Copenhagen […] has revealed a pattern of abuse and dangerous working conditions for unpaid interns. In “The Bear,” the stage is a dream:”
- transitiveTo produce on a stage, to perform a play.
“The local theater group will stage "Pride and Prejudice".”
- To demonstrate in a deceptive manner.
“The salesman's demonstration of the new cleanser was staged to make it appear highly effective.”
- transitiveTo orchestrate; to carry out.
“The workers staged a strike.”
“A protest will be staged in the public square on Monday.”
“But capital was proving difficult to raise; rumours were in the air that the G.W.R. and L.S.W.R. were about to patch up their quarrel, and the people of Southampton, who twelve months earlier had stag”
- transitiveTo place in position to prepare for use.
“We staged the cars to be ready for the start, then waited for the starter to drop the flag.”
“to stage data to be written at a later time”
- transitiveTo determine what stage (a disease, etc.) has progressed to
“One method of documenting a wound is as follows: (1) stage the ulcer, time present, setting where occurred; (2) describe the location anatomically; (3) measure ulcer in centimeters (length × width × b”
- To jettison a spent stage of a multistage rocket or other launch vehicle and light the engine(s) of the stage above it.
“In Kerbal Space Program, you stage away used-up parts of your rocket by hitting the spacebar.”
- Canada, US, intransitiveTo work an internship, usually as a chef or waiter.
- intransitiveTo work as an unpaid intern in a restaurant.
“I’ve been chosen to stage at Coloniál, the Michelin-starred restaurant that I will one day lie about running. Stage is restaurant-speak for free labor, but I’m unconcerned.”
Formsstages(plural) · stages(present, singular, third-person) · staging(participle, present) · staged(participle, past) · staged(past) · Stages(plural)