stale Hear it!

stale1 definition

stale (stāl)

adjective staler stal′er, stalest stal′·est

  1. having lost freshness; made musty, dry, bad, etc. by having been kept too long; specif.,
    1. flat; vapid; tasteless stale beer
    2. hard and dry: said of bread, etc.
    3. low in oxygen content; stagnant stale air
  2. having lost originality or newness; lacking in interest through familiarity or overuse; hackneyed; trite a stale joke, stale gossip
  3. out of condition, ineffective, enervated, bored, etc. from either too much or too little activity
  4. Law having lost legal force or effect through lack of use or action, as a claim or lien

Etymology: ME, prob. via Anglo-Norm < OFr estale, quiet, stagnant < Gmc *stall: for IE base see still

transitive verb, intransitive verb staled, staling stal′·ing

to make or become stale

Related Forms:

stale2 definition

stale (stāl)

intransitive verb staled, staling stal′·ing

to urinate: said as of horses and cattle

Etymology: ME, akin to MLowG stal, urine < IE base *(s)tel-, to let flow, urinate > Gr stalassein, to drip, telma, puddle

noun

urine, as of horses or cattle

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

stale Synonyms

stale

modif.

  1. Old or musty

    spoiled, dried, smelly; see musty 2, old 2.

  2. Dull and trite

    mawkish, hackneyed, fusty; see dull 4.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

stale Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • go: House music has gone a bit stale of late - true or false?

Modifying Another Word

  • slightly: I found many of them, however, to be slightly stale.

Infinitive complement

  • trim: In the year stales to trim of strokes cancer.

Modifies a noun

  • seedbed: In spring cereals, allowing time for a stale seedbed helps to reduce weed numbers in the growing crop.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: Plays or theater pieces can very quickly become stale.
stale usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

stale quotes

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.

-Cather,Willa Sibert

Stale is their gladness who were never sad.

-Harpur, Charles

I keep no rank nor station. Cured, I am frizzled, stale and small.

-Lowell, RobertTraill Spence,Jr

stale quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Link to this page:

Cite this page:

MLA Style

"stale." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/stale>

APA Style

stale. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/stale

Comments:

Please or Register to post a comment