stale

adj

1. (obsolete)Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.

   “The stronger Beere is divided into two parts (viz.) mild and stale; the first may ease a man of a drought, but the later is like water cast into a Smiths forge, and breeds more heartburning, and as rust eates into Iron, so overstale Beere gnawes auletholes in the entrales, or else my skill failes, and what I have written of it is to be held as a jest.”

   “Particular care must be taken that the stale beer in which the isinglass is dissolved be perfectly clear and stale.”

   “Is not that hard or stale beer mixed to give the porter the appearance of age at once, which formerly was allowed to be matured by time?”

2. No longer fresh, in reference to food, urine, straw, wounds, etc.

   “Near-synonyms: gone bad, spoiled; see also Thesaurus:rotten”

   “Stale as breed or drinke is, rassis. Stale as meate is that begynneth to savoure, viel.”

   “New freshe blood to ouersprinkle their stale mete that it may seme...newly kylled.”

   “To her surprise, Abe did not come to collect her for the usual morning inhabitation session with Azure. She did not see him until almost noon, when he personally delivered lunch to her tent. Another stale roll and cup of water sat on the tray he carried. Abe hung his head, as abashed as Honorato had been. “This is all I could sneak in for now. I'll try to get more later.””

3. No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; clichéd, hackneyed, dated.

   “Better is...be it new or stale, A harmelesse lie, than a harmefull true tale.”

   “Doist thou smyle to reade this stale and beggarlye stuffe.”

   “How wary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable Seeme to me all the vses of this world?”

   “A two-days-old newspaper. You resent the stale thing as an affront.”

   “Rick would comment on the fact that he'd never had such bad coffee, not even the mud at his precinct. Mark would tell him to quit with the stale joke, already”

4. (obsolete)No longer nubile or suitable for marriage, in reference to people; past one's prime.

   “Near-synonyms: over the hill; see also Thesaurus:elderly”

   “Rosimunda...hathe an vncle a stale batcheler.”

   “In barren Women, and stale Maids, Tapping should be very cautiously undertaken.”

5. (usually)Not new or recent; having been in place or in effect for some time.

   “In most states, you can be ticketed for failing to clear the intersection, even if you are hemmed in by traffic. One good clue to a stale green light is the pedestrian signal.”

6. (obsolete)Fallow, in reference to land.

   “Lime would do very little or no good on stale ploughed lands.”

7. Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.

   “a stale affidavit”

   “a stale demand”

   “The jury will rarely give credit to a stale complaint.”

8. Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.

   “By this means the [horse's] legs are not made more stale than necessary.”

   “Dame Agnes will probably be stale after her exertions in the Derby.”

9. Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.

   “Stale cheque,...a cheque which has remained unpaid for some considerable time.”

10. Of data: out of date; not synchronized with the newest copy.

    “The bug was found to be caused by stale data in the cache.”

11. (not-comparable, obsolete)At a standstill; stalemated.

    “Then drawith he & is stale.”

noun

1. (colloquial)Something stale; a loaf of bread or the like that is no longer fresh.

   “I went to Riggs's batty-cake shop, and asked 'em for a penneth of the cheapest and nicest stales, that were all but blue-mouldy, but not quite.”

   “Frayed-looking sweet-cakes...bought as ‘stales’ from the baker.”

2. A long, thin handle (of rakes, axes, etc.)

   “In Case your Cask is a Butt,...have ready boiling...Water, which put in, and, with a long Stale and a little Birch fastened to its End, scrub the Bottom.”

   “You came to me with the axe head in one hand and the stale in the other.”

3. (dialectal)One of the posts or uprights of a ladder.

   “Stales, the staves, or risings of a ladder, or the staves of a rack in a stable.”

   “Fruit ladders should be provided beforehand. They differ from the ordinary ladder by having the bottom rungs a little longer and the top of the side stales meeting together so is to rest in the fork of a limb.”

   “The zigzag determines the order of the currents from [1] which occur on the stales of the ladder and their relation with the currents from [0] which occur on the rungs and ringles between them.”

4. One of the rungs on a ladder.

   “To begin then: not long before this paragraph was written, P fell into doze, and dreamt, he saw Jacob's ladder with one foot standing on the earth, the other reaching up into heaven. Dukes, Marquisses, and other Peers, fancy represented to him, as standing on the upper stales; on the middle ones, Knights and Baronets, and under them, a train of Esquires and Gentlemen, reaching to the bottom.”

   “Mr. Marsden managed, by dint of swimming, to come in contact with the form, to which hemself and friend had previously fixed the cord and thrown overboard; but this, from its shape, would have proved, in all probability, but a doubtful means of escape, had he not, after a time, fallen in with a small ladder, which he affixed with the cord to the form, placing his leg between the stales, and resting his body, sometimes at full length, when the breakers had fallen on the form.”

   “The rental of the lands remained at these figures for many years, and the following extracts are examples of the payments made:— A.D. 1686, Utt, pᵈ Thomas Rassel for a load of lime delivered to Smalhith Chappell 01₤ 11s. 0d. Itt . for a quire of paper 00₤ 00s. 06d. Itt . for a ladder for the use of the Chappel 33 stales long , at 2ᵈ yᵉ stale 00₤ 05s. 6d.”

   “Ash was used for stales (ladder rungs).”

   “As a young man Mike Austen, a retired farmer now working as a guide at Brogdale, used to climb up a ladder with sixty 'stales', or rungs – eight inches between each of them – to pick the cherries in his father's orchard with a basket tied to either his waist or the ladder.”

5. (obsolete)The stem of a plant.
6. The shaft of an arrow, spear, etc.

   “The Surgians cut of the stale of that shaft in suche wise, that they moued not the heade that was wythin the fleshe.”

   “But (ſeeing th'arrowes ſtale without,) and […]”

7. (obsolete)A fixed position, particularly a soldier's in a battle-line.

   “Wherefore they had a great avauntage, but in coclusion thie french menne were slayne, and their horses taken, and so the lyght horsement came wyth their catail, nere to the embushment, and the frenchimen folowed, that seyng the englyshmen that kept the stale, came in al hast & rescued their light horsemen, and draue the frenchemen backe, & then made returne to their beastes”

   “All these in great hast came to Newnam bridge, where they found other Englishmen that had woone the bridge of the Frenchmen, and so all togither set foward to assaile the Frenchmen that kept the stale, and tarie till the residue of their companie which were gone a forraging vnto Calis walles were come: for the other that had spoiled the marishes were returned with a great bootie.”

   “You cannot take the queen without giving a stale, therefore you lose the game.”

8. (uncommon)A stalemate; a stalemated game.

   “They stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre.”

9. (obsolete)An ambush.

   “It is a stelling place and sovir harbry, Quhar ost in staill or embuschment may ly.”

   “The erle of Essex...with .ii. C. speares was layde in a stale, if the Frenchmen had come neerer.”

10. (obsolete)A band of armed men or hunters.

    “The staill past throw the wod with sic noyis...yat all the bestis wer rasit fra thair dennys.”

    “The Lard of Drunlanrig lying al thys while in ambush...forbare to breake out to gyue anye charge vppon his enimies, doubting least the Earle of Lennox hadde kept a stale behynde.”

11. (Scotland, obsolete)The main force of an army.

    “Neveryeles I knaw asweill by Englisemen as Scottishmen that their stale was no les then thre thowsand men.”

12. (obsolete, uncountable)Urine, especially used of horses and cattle.

    “[…]That they be not compelled to eate their owne donge, and drinke their owne stale with you?”

    “The stale of Camels and Goats[…]is good for them that have the dropsie.”

    “Or annoint thy selfe with the stale of a mule.”

    “Those of Crotta being hardly besieged by Metellus, were reduced to so hard a pinch, and strait necessitie of all manner of other beverage, that they were forced to drinke the stale or urine of their horses.”

    “Thou did'st drinke The stale of Horses.”

13. (obsolete)A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.

    “Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.”

    “A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.”

14. (obsolete)Any lure, particularly in reference to people used as live bait.

    “She ran in all the hast Vnbrased and vnlast... It was a stale to take the deuyll in a brake.”

    “The Britaynes woulde oftentimes...lay their Cattell...in places conueniente, to bee as a stale to the Romaynes, and when the Romaynes shoulde make to them to fetche the same away,...they would fall vpon them.”

    “Her daughter Margerit was the stale to lure...them that otherwise flewe hyghe...and could not be gotten.”

    “...many of the Coffamen keeping beaytifull boyes, who ſerue as ſtales to procure them cuſtomers.”

    “Six-pence or a shilling to put into the Box, for a stale to decoy in the rest of the Parish.”

15. (obsolete)An accomplice of a thief or criminal acting as bait.

    “Their mynisters, be false bretherne or false sustern, stales of the deuyll.”

    “This is Captain Whibble, the Towne stale, For all cheating imployments.”

16. (obsolete)a partner whose beloved abandons or torments him in favor of another.

    “I perceiue Lucilla (sayd he) that I was made thy stale, and Philautus thy laughinge stocke.”

    “Was I then chose and wedded for his stale?”

    “Did I for this loose all my friends...to be made A stale to a common whore?”

    “But, too vnruly Deere, he breakes the pale And feedes from home; poore I am but his stale.”

    “This comes of rutting: Are we made stales to one another?”

17. (obsolete)A patsy, a pawn, someone used under some false pretext to forward another's (usu. sinister) designs; a stalking horse.

    “That of the two nominated, one should be an unfit Man, and as it were a Stale, to bring the Office to the other.”

    “Had he none else to make a stale but me?”

    “Eurydice...meaning nothing lesse than to let her husband serue as a Stale, keeping the throne warme till another were growne old enough to sit in it.”

    “A pretence of kindness is the universal stale to all base projects.”

18. (obsolete)A prostitute of the lowest sort; any wanton woman.

    “Spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio...to a contaminated stale.”

    “But to be leaft for such a one as she, The stale of all, what will folke thinke of me?”

    “...detesting as he said the insatiable impudency of a prostitute Stale.”

19. (obsolete)Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.

    “'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.”

    “If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.”

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To make stale; to age in order to clear and strengthen (a drink, especially beer).

   “Stalyn, or make stale drynke, defeco.”

   “A stock of old porter should be kept, sufficient for staling the consumption of twelve months.”

2. (transitive)To make stale; to cause to go out of fashion or currency; to diminish the novelty or interest of, particularly by excessive exposure or consumption.

   “Ile goe tell all the Argument of his Play aforehand, and so stale his Inuention to the Auditory before it come foorth.”

   “Not content To stale himselfe in all societies, He makes my house as common as a Mart.”

   “Age cannot wither her, nor custome stale Her infinite variety.”

   “Pictures and statues have been staled by copy and description.”

3. (intransitive)To become stale; to grow odious from excessive exposure or consumption.

   “They have got so much of Christ as to be staled of his company.”

   “Philanthropy was beginning to stale.”

   “Vi's penchant for puns had struck him as cute when he first met her, but it had staled somewhat over the years.”

4. (intransitive)To become stale; to grow unpleasant from age.

   “The Drink from that Time flattens and stales.”

5. (obsolete, transitive)To make a ladder by joining rungs ("stales") between the posts.

   “For stalyng of the ladders of the Churche xx d.”

6. (transitive, uncommon)To stalemate.

   “He shall stale þe black kyng in the pointe þer the crosse standith.”

   “In China, however, a player who stales his opponent's King, wins the game.”

7. (intransitive, obsolete)To be stalemated.

   “For vnder cuire I got sik check, that I micht neither muife nor neck, bot ather stale or mait.”

8. (intransitive, obsolete)To urinate, especially used of horses and cattle.

   “Gif ony stal in the yet of the gilde...he sall gif iiijd. to the mendis.”

   “Tary a whyle, your hors wyll staale.”

   “Why a pox o' your boxe, once againe: let your little wife stale in it, and she will.”

   “I wonder [the knight's son] doth not go on all four too, and hold up his Leg when he stales.”

   “Cattle-dung where fuel failed; Water where the mules had staled; And sackcloth for their raiment.”

9. (obsolete, rare, transitive)To serve as a decoy, to lure.

   “The eye...Doth serue to stale her here and there where she doth come and go.”