STAKE.
entry 29959
STAKE. n. s. [staca, Saxon; staeck, Dutch; estaca, Spanish.]
1. A post or strong stick fixed in the ground.
The more I shaked the stake, which he had planted in the
ground of my heart, the deeper still it sunk into it.
Sidney.
His credit in the world might stand the poor town in great
stead, as hitherto their ministers foreign estimation hath been
the best stake in their hedge.
Hooker.
He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof sharp stakes, pluckt out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground.
Shakesp. Henry VI.
In France the grapes that make the wine grow upon low
vines bound to small stakes, and the raised vines in arbors
make but verjuice.
Bacon's Natural History.
Or sharpen stakes, or head the forks, or twine
The sallow twigs to tie the straggling vine.
Dryden.
2. A piece of wood.
While he whirl'd in fiery circles round
The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas found,
And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound.
Dryden.
3. Any thing placed as a palisade or fence.
That hollow I should know: what are you, speak?
Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else.
Milton.
4. The post to which a beast is tied to be baited.
We are at the stake,
And bay'd about with many enemies.
Shakesp. Jul. Cæsar.
Have you not set mine honour at the stake,
And baited it with all th' unmuzzled thoughts
That tyrannous heart can think?
Shak. Twelfth Night.
5. Any thing pledged or wagered. I know not well whence it
has this meaning.
'Tis time short pleasure now to take,
Of little life the best to make,
And manage wisely the last stake.
Cowley.
O then, what interest shall I make
To save my last important stake,
When the most just have cause to quake!
Roscommon.
He ventures little for so great a stake.
More.
Th' increasing sound is borne to either shore,
And for their stakes the throwing nations fear.
Dryden.
The game was so contrived, that one particular cast took
up the whole stake; and when some others came up, you laid
down.
Arbuthnot.
6. The state of being hazarded, pledged, or wagered.
When he heard that the lady Margaret was declared for it,
he saw plainly that his kingdom must again be put to the stake,
and that he must fight for it.
Bacon's Henry VII.
Are not our liberties, our lives,
The laws, religion, and our wives,
Enough at once to lie at stake,
For cov'nant and the cause's sake?
Hudibras.
Of my crown thou too much care do'st take;
That which I value more, my love's at stake.
Dryden.
Hath any of you a great interest at stake in a distant part of
the world? Hath he ventured a good share of his fortune?
Att.
Every moment Cato's life's at stake.
Addis. Cato.
7.
The stake is a small anvil, which stands upon a small iron
foot on the work-bench, to remove as occasion offers; or else
it hath a strong iron spike at the bottom let into some place of
the work-bench, not to be removed. Its office is to set small
cold work straight upon, or to cut or punch upon with the
cold chissel or cold punch. Moxon's Mech.
Exer.
To STAKE. v. a. [from the noun.]
1. To fasten, support, or defend with posts set upright.
Stake and bind up your weakest plants and flowers against
the winds, before they in a moment prostrate a whole year's
labour.
Evelyn's Kalendar.
2. To wager; to hazard; to put to hazard.
Is a man betrayed in his nearest concerns? The cause is, he
relied upon the services of a pack of villains, who designed
nothing but their own game, and to stake him while they play'd
for themselves.
South.
Persons, after their prisons have been flung open, have
chosen rather to languish in their dungeons than stake their
miserable lives on the success of a revolution.
Addison.
They durst not stake their present and future happiness on
their own chimerical imaginations.
Addison.
I'll stake yon' lamb that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.
Pope.