staff
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
construction
engineering
entertainment
government
lifestyle
manufacturing
medicine
military
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
rail-transport
railways
sciences
surgery
transport
war
Etymology: From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf (“letter of the alphabet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Danish stav, Swedish stav.
Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.
Inflected forms:
form: staffs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: staves
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: staff
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: staffs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: staffing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: staffed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: staffed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: And thus ſhall ye eate it [the lamb]: with your loines girded, your ſhooes on your feet, and your ſtaffe in your hand: and ye ſhall eate it in haſte: it is the Lords Paſſeouer.
The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.
gloss: A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The employees of a business.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The company employed 10 new members of staff this month.
The company has taken on 1600 more highly-paid staff.
No department of the Southern Railway escaped some share of the work involved, and the outdoor traffic and locomotive staffs in particular were engaged literally night and day, snatching a few hours' sleep as opportunity offered, until the task was completed.
Most staff do not have the skills to cope with such challenging patients, who too often receive "impersonal" care and suffer from boredom, the first National Audit of Dementia found. It says hospitals should introduce "dementia champions".
It turns out that, in journalistic terms, and especially at the FT, where many staff see out their entire careers, seven years is nothing.
gloss: A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a constable's staff
Me thought this ſtaffe mine Office-badge in Court / Was broke in twaine:
All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them.
gloss: A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The rung of a ladder.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
examples: I ascend at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves.
gloss: A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Mr. Cowley had found out, that no kind of Staff is proper for an Heroick Poem; as being all too lirical:
gloss: An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its approach to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; with Gashford at his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most unpromising appearance, forming a kind of staff about him.
gloss: A form of token once used, in combination with a ticket, for safe train movements between two points on a single line.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
examples: The train-staff and ticket system was used widely at one time, until superseded by electrical token systems, the first of which, the tablet system, appeared in 1878, […].
The first up train was the morning semi-fast ex Buncrana, which sped through with No. 8 at its head, adroitly exchanging staffs at about 15 m.p.h. […] The next train through Tooban was our opposite number, and we duly received the vital staff.
The unusual rolling stock, the fare collection methods, and the exchange of train staffs make it quite clear that here is something out of the ordinary run of suburban electric lines.
gloss: To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Interlaken East station is jointly owned with the standard gauge Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway from Bern and Thun and the Swiss Federal Railways metre-gauge Brünig line from Lucerne, but is managed and staffed by the Bernese Oberland group.
Synonyms: stick
stave
Related words: baton
bludgeon
cane
club
cudgel
rod
stick
truncheon
Derived words: Aesculapian staff
airstaff
air staff
almucantar staff
backroom staff
barstaff
bass staff
bedstaff
bookstaff
broomstaff
cantoral staff
centurion's staff
chief of staff
churn-staff
cleystaff
completed staff work
constaff
cowlstaff
cowl-staff
cross-staff
destaff
dogs have masters, cats have staff
dogs have owners, cats have staff
doorstaff
flag-staff
flagstaff
flag staff
forestaff
general staff
grand staff
ground staff
groundstaff
half staff
half-staff
handstaff
jack-staff
jackstaff
Jacob's staff
Jedburgh staff
Jeddart staff
Jupiter's staff
leveling staff
levelling staff
level staff
Longstaff
member of staff
Mercury's staff
nonstaff
offset staff
orange staff sergeant
packstaff
paddle-staff
palmer's staff
pikestaff
pilgrim's staff
ploughstaff
plowstaff
quarterstaff
ragged staff
set up one's staff
short-staff
skeleton staff
speaker's staff
staffaculty
staff angle
staff captain
staff college
staff corps
staff function
staffless
staffman
staff nurse
staff of Asclepius
staff officer
staff of life
staffroom
staff sergeant
staff sergeant major
staff sling
staff surgeon
staff system
staff tree
staff up
staff vine
staffwide
station staff
tau staff
tipstaff
treble staff
verge-staff
verge staff
vine staff
vine-staff
waiting staff
wait staff
waitstaff
whipstaff
wring-staff
staffer
Translations: