stead
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 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, place”), Norn sta (“domicile, farm”), Norwegian Nynorsk stad (“place; city, town”), Swedish stad, stadh, stedt (“city, town”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐍃 (staþs, “location, place”). See the doublet stasis.
Inflected forms:
form: steads
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor.
pos: noun
examples: 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 stead!
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 […]
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.
gloss: A place as it relates to a role, service, or ability; capacity.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: 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.
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 different stead than those who have pursued claims that a BOC has failed to perform as required by agreement.
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.
gloss: A relational or circumstantial position; standing.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
uncountable
examples: 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 Europe.
gloss: A place as it relates to situation, circumstance, or status; condition.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
examples: Anthropology in India started in a different stead than what was the situation of its emergence in other countries.
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 […]
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.
The Adidas shirts look fantastic and certainly put us in a different stead.
Adding to the hem of a holy garment suggests a desire to be in a different stead.
gloss: A place, or spot, in general; location.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
literary
examples: For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around[…].
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."
"[…] I went to another stead in the yard to be further from her cries."
gloss: A place where a person normally rests; a seat.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads.
gloss: An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm; a homestead.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: 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.
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.
Only when he reached the stead road, and Wildebeast, did he concentrate on the image of carrion, of food for the sandwolf pack.
gloss: The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.
Derived words: 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
onstead
playstead
pondstead
ranchstead
roadstead
steadfast
sunstead
Thingstead
wallstead
workstead
Translations: