Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stave \Stave\, n. [From {Staff}, and corresponding to the pl.
   staves. See {Staff}.]
   1. 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.

   2. One of the cylindrical bars of a lantern wheel; one of the
      bars or rounds of a rack, a ladder, etc.

   3. A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.

            Let us chant a passing stave In honor of that hero
            brave.                                --Wordsworth.

   4. (Mus.) The five horizontal and parallel lines on and
      between which musical notes are written or pointed; the
      staff. [Obs.]

   {Stave jointer}, a machine for dressing the edges of staves.

Stave \Stave\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Staved}or {Stove}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Staving}.] [From {Stave}, n., or {Staff}, n.]
   1. To break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in;
      to burst; -- often with in; as, to stave a cask; to stave
      in a boat.

   2. To push, as with a staff; -- with off.

            The condition of a servant staves him off to a
            distance.                             --South.

   3. To delay by force or craft; to drive away; -- usually with
      off; as, to stave off the execution of a project.

            And answered with such craft as women use, Guilty or
            guilties, to stave off a chance That breaks upon
            them perilously.                      --Tennyson.

   4. To suffer, or cause, to be lost by breaking the cask.

            All the wine in the city has been staved. --Sandys.

   5. To furnish with staves or rundles. --Knolles.

   6. To render impervious or solid by driving with a calking
      iron; as, to stave lead, or the joints of pipes into which
      lead has been run.

   {To stave and tail}, 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. --Nares.

Stave \Stave\, v. i.
   To burst in pieces by striking against something; to dash
   into fragments.

         Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank.
                                                  --Longfellow.

Source : WordNet®

stave
     v 1: furnich with staves; "stave a ladder"
     2: burst or force (a hole) into something [syn: {stave in}]
     [also: {stove}]

stave
     n 1: (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the
          musical notes are written [syn: {staff}]
     2: one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a
        barrel or bucket [syn: {lag}]
     3: a crosspiece between the legs of a chair [syn: {rung}, {round}]
     [also: {stove}]