stave

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A narrow strip of wood forming part of the sides of a barrel, tub, or similar structure.
• noun One of the wooden planks in a stave wall.
• noun A rung of a ladder or chair.
• noun A staff or cudgel.
• noun A set of verses; a stanza.
• transitive verb To crush or smash inward, often by making a hole. Often used with in:

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A pole or piece of wood of some length; a Staff.
• noun A stanza; a verse; a metrical division.
• noun Specifically, same as staff, 9.
• To break in a stave or staves of; knock a hole in; break; burst: as, the boat is stove.
• To cause or suffer to be lost by breaking the cask; hence, to spill; pour out.
• To furnish with staves or rundles.
• To make firm by compression; shorten or compact, as a heated rod or bar by endwise blows, or as lead in the socket-joints of pipes.
• To go or rush along recklessly or regardless of everything, as one in a rage; work energetically; drive.
• noun The porter-bar used to start and hold massive forgings which are undergoing treatment in a furnace or under a hammer or press. The part to be made is welded to the stave or porter-bar, and when completed the latter is cut off.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash into fragments.
• noun One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; esp., one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc.
• noun One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.
• noun A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
• noun (Mus.), obsolete The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or printed; the staff{7}.
• noun a machine for dressing the edges of staves.
• transitive verb To break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst; -- often with in
• transitive verb To push, as with a staff; -- with off.
• transitive verb To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with off.
• transitive verb To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.
• transitive verb To furnish with staves or rundles.
• transitive verb To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking iron.
• transitive verb in bear baiting, (to stave) to interpose with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to hold back the dog by the tail.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; esp., one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, a pail, etc.
• noun One of the bars or rounds of a rack, rungs of a ladder, etc; one of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel
• noun poetry A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.
• noun The five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.
• noun A staff or walking stick
• verb transitive To break in the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst. Often with in.
• verb transitive To push, as with a staff. With off.
• verb transitive To delay by force; to drive away. Often with off.
• verb intransitive To burst in pieces by striking against something.
• verb intransitive To walk or move rapidly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb burst or force (a hole) into something
• noun a crosspiece between the legs of a chair
• noun one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket
• verb furnish with staves
• noun (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written