stead

The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor.

Noun

  1. The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor.
    • 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...
    • 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 […] - 1961, Muriel...
    • 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. - 2011 March 31, “Kin selection”, in The Economist:
  2. A place as it relates to a role, service, or ability; capacity.
    • One may not expect to entirely stop the oncoming energy but the outgoing stands in a different stead, for in this a certain amount of ruling is possible by the native. - 1902, Alvidas, Science and Key of Life: Planetary...
    • For instance, those who operate under generally available terms and conditions or whose interconnection agreements do not confer a contractual right to the BOC performance they seek under section 271 may stand in a...
    • He had intended to create diamonds with his experiments, but the accidental discovery of such amazingly explosive chemical reactions served him in a different stead. - 2013, Kevin J. Anderson, Clockwork Angels:
  3. A relational or circumstantial position; standing.
    • 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...
  4. A place as it relates to situation, circumstance, or status; condition.
    • Anthropology in India started in a different stead than what was the situation of its emergence in other countries. - 1969, Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress:
    • I shiver to the cold solitude Overwhelming desire to have a different stead I don't know why I don't know why I'm just afraid to fly […] - 2013, Sonnia De Guzman, Collected Poems, page 41:
    • It is not only the sheer size of its endowment or the range and extent of its network ties that place it in a different stead to other unofficial actors. - 2014, Michael Moran, Private Foundations and Development...
  5. A place, or spot, in general; location.
    • For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around[…]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
    • The three Princes ceased not travelling together for seven days, at the end of which time one said to other, "Let us separate and let each make search in a different stead, so haply shall we hit upon our need." - 1885,...
    • "[…] I went to another stead in the yard to be further from her cries." - 2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:
  6. A place where a person normally rests; a seat.
    • There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads. - 1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island:
  7. An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc.
  8. An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm; a homestead.
    • 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. - 1889 December, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “[Allan’s Wife] The...
    • Nordic types may turn to Frigga as queen mother of Asgard, or even to good friend Thor, known to gladly bless a new stead and to party with the best. - 2008, Bronwynn Forrest Torgerson, One Witch's Way, page 5:
    • Only when he reached the stead road, and Wildebeast, did he concentrate on the image of carrion, of food for the sandwolf pack. - 2010, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Darknesses, page 25:
  9. The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.
    • The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead. - 1693, John Dryden, Baucis and Philemon:

Origin

From Middle English sted, stede (noun) and steden (verb), from Old English stede, from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“place”), from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“standing, location”). Doublet of stad. cognates and related terms Cognate with Scots steid (“location, place”), North Frisian Stair, Stat, steed, stää (“city, town; place, stead”), Saterland Frisian Steede (“place, stead”), Stääd (“city, town”), West Frisian stêd (“city, town”), Bavarian Stådt (“city, town”), Dutch stad, stede (“city, town”), German Stadt (“city, town”), Statt (“abode, place, stead”), Stätte (“place, spot, venue”), German Low German Stee (“location, place”), Luxembourgish Stad (“city, town”), Vilamovian śtaod (“city, town”), Yiddish שטאָט (shtot, “city, town”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål stad (“city, town”), sted (“place”), Faroese stað (“place”), staður (“location, place; town”), Icelandic staður (“location,...

Forms

steads

Derived

abbeystead Banstead bedstead birthstead cheapstead covenstead doorstead dungstead farmstead girdlestead gravestead headstead hearthstead homestead in good stead in one's stead instead instead of in the stead of marketstead merestead middenstead millstead noonstead

Noun Singapore, colloquial

  1. One's partner in a romantic relationship.
    • C'mon lah!! Wake up.. Y R U stupid girls so CHEAP!! Imagine a baby making out with an adult! Want to have stead,.. Go find 1 16yr old rich kid lah!! At for let those men take advantage!! Remember Men CANNOT be Trusted!!...
    • I prefer to know a guy better as a friend first before even considering him as a potential stead. - 1998 April 17, L.Angel, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet):
    • One of the best dates I had was with his person who did attempt to impress me with expensive gifts or flowers. My date did asked though but I said no because for somebody who's not my stead and I dun feel there was a...

Origin

Clipping of steady.

Forms

steads

Verb

  1. To help, support, benefit or assist; to be helpful.
    • May you stead me? will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer? - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
    • I could never better stead thee than now.[…] - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
    • 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, /...
  2. To fill the stead or place of something.

Forms

steads steading steaded

Derived

bestead