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.

   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     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 or similar object (e.g., steel channel or angle stock) 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; often connected in a grid forming a stakebody.
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.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 106:

     However, the word "witch" came to be applied almost exclusively to women who [...] were usually old and ugly, and for this reason many unfortunate old ladies, whose only crimes were loneliness and a lack of beauty, went to 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.

   • 2021 February 10, Richard Clinnick, “Eurostar boost as French promise aid”, in RAIL, number 924, page 10:

     The French Government is Eurostar's majority shareholder, with the country's state-owned railway SNCF holding a 55% stake, while Belgian state operator SNCB has a 5% stake.

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.
   • 1910, Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge:

     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

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.

   Synonyms: bet, hazard, wager

   • 1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. Spring. The First Pastoral, or Damon. […]”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 725:

     I'll ſtake my Lamb that near the Fountain plays, / And from the Brink his dancing Shade ſurveys.

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.

5. (cryptocurrencies) To deposit and risk a considerable amount of cryptocurrency in order to participate in the proof of stake process of verification.
   • 2019, Elad Elrom, “Blockchain Basics”, in The Blockchain Developer […] , Apress, →ISBN, page 23:

     Any peer can participate in the mining process by staking coins in order to validate a new transaction. To become a miner, there are two options; you can stake your coins to be used by a trustworthy node […] , or you can submit a full node to be selected as a miner.

• stake a claim
• stake one's life
• stake out
• stakeout

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stake”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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

stake

1. (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of steken
2. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of staken

• kaste

From Old English staca, from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô.

• staak, stack, stak

• IPA^(key): /ˈstaːk(ə)/

stake (plural stakes)

1. A stake; wood put in the ground as a marker or support.
2. A fencepost; a stake used in concert to form a barrier.
3. A branch or bough; an extension of a tree.
4. A stave or stick; a cut (and often shaped) piece of wood.
5. (rare) A prickle or splint.
6. (rare) A metal bar or pole.
7. (rare) A stabbing feeling.

• staken
• stakyng

• English: stake
• Scots: stak, staik
• → Irish: staic

• “stāke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-12-02.

stake

1. Alternative form of staken

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. (colloquial, vulgar) a hard-on (penile erection)

   Synonyms: (colloquial) ståfräs, (colloquial) fjong, (colloquial) bånge, stånd

3. (slang, uncountable) balls; courage, assertiveness

• ljusstake
• adventsljusstake

• stake in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• stake in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• stake in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• steka