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stake
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
stake
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a minority stake (=a number of shares in a company, equalling less than half the total number)
▪ IBM has bought a minority stake in the computer company.
be burned at the stake (=burned in a fire as a punishment)
▪ In those days witches were burned at the stake.
sb's/sth's honour is at stake (=someone may lose their honour)
▪ French people believed that the country's honour was at stake over the incident.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ We are playing for big stakes here.
▪ In fact, corn farmers probably have as big a stake in sugar quotas as do sugar growers!
▪ The stock market has no inkling a big stake is being amassed, so the target's share price need not rise.
▪ They, after all, are the ones with the biggest stake in the outcome.
▪ At the least, they understand something big is at stake.
▪ For towns of medium size a big stake in the woollen textile industry was the surest foundation of prosperity.
financial
▪ There are really two questions: who can stay in the home and how is the financial stake to be divided?
▪ Quackenbush is confident the timetable can be met, especially since the financial stakes are so high.
▪ One other body deserves mention, though it is very small fry in the financial stakes.
▪ It is argued that there might be one financial cost at stake in this idea.
high
▪ You thought you'd play - for higher stakes than those he was offering.
▪ Of course much depends on how the current high stakes budget negotiations play out.
▪ He found Zacco lightly intoxicated, and playing dice for high stakes among a circle of friends.
▪ I have relatively high stakes in conformity - I happen to have done fairly well out of it.
▪ It's a high-stakes game, and few enterprises can afford to compete.
▪ Especially when the players themselves happily accept the high stakes for which they play, gambling with their bodies.
▪ But commander-in-chief Douglas MacArthur wanted to play for higher stakes.
▪ And sport is played for higher-sometimes much higher-stakes, whether these be economic, political or personal.
large
▪ Analysts also expect the company to shed its large stake in merchant bank Singer &038; Friedlander.
▪ I have tried to play for a large stake, and if I succeed all will be well.
▪ Meanwhile, the Conservative Government has helped ordinary people to gain a larger stake in the nation's wealth.
▪ It follows, then, that families have the largest stake in the education process.
▪ Identify the four or five groups that you think would have the largest stake in decisions in this policy area. 2.
major
▪ This will give Anglia a major stake in a top Hollywood television production company.
▪ The process of centralization has involved governments in taking a major stake in investments which were previously foreign-owned.
▪ They have taken a major stake in Crane Holdings.
significant
▪ News that an investor has bought a significant stake in any company is likely to lift that company's share price.
small
▪ His modest bit of holiday money had miraculously multiplied and all from a single, small stake!
▪ With a very small stake, vast losses and gains can be made.
▪ Banks own small stakes of their own and can rally support against a bidder.
▪ In return it will take a small stake in their start-ups.
wooden
▪ It's thought the attackers used either a knife or a wooden stake.
▪ In the town of Pisco, 125 miles south of the capital Lima, sales of crucifixes and wooden stakes are booming.
■ NOUN
equity
▪ This has resulted in several of the unlisted equity stakes being valued at a big discount to the quoted investments.
▪ Lockheed Martin will hold a 20 percent equity stake in Loral Space.
▪ Terms of the acquisition of the product line and equity stake were not revealed.
▪ Gengold operates a total of 11 mines under management contracts and holds equity stakes in each.
▪ About 65 percent of Gold Fields' earnings are from dividends paid by gold mines in which it has equity stakes.
▪ Rockefeller would retain its 50 percent equity stake in Embarcadero Center.
▪ As part of labor concession agreements with other airlines, the Airline Pilots Association has sought an equity stake in USAir.
▪ The 49-percent equity stake commands 71 percent of voting rights.
minority
▪ It is unlikely, however, that any Western company will get more than a minority stake in Pilsner Urquell.
▪ Jaguar plunged 46p to 685p as General Motors confirmed it is in talks that could result in it taking a minority stake.
▪ The disposal of a minority stake would raise about £17 million.
▪ A strategic alliance may take the form of an outright acquisition, minority stake, joint venture or brand franchise.
▪ Assuming that shares are purchased, whether to acquire full control, majority holding or a minority stake?
■ VERB
acquire
▪ It acquired its stake in the early 1980s, hoping eventually to acquire the tobacco group.
▪ Disney reportedly has been in talks to acquire a one-third stake in Starwave Corp. for as much as $ 100 million.
▪ Millions of voters have acquired a stake in the wider ownership of shares and homes and a voice in union affairs.
▪ Hongkong Land acquired a 14.9% stake in Trafalgar House and then attempted, but failed, to push its holding to 29.9%.
▪ Mediobanca is being forced to acquire the 10 percent stake after secretly buying that much in October.
▪ Employees should be given every opportunity to acquire a stake in the business for which they work.
▪ Buyers acquire a 50 percent stake in exchange for investing a certain amount of money in the company.
burn
▪ Generation One you burn at the stake.
▪ He was then burnt at the stake.
▪ Refusing to recant his doctrines as heretical, he was condemned to be burnt at the stake at Konstanz.
▪ Governor Dulcitius had her sisters burnt at the stake.
burned
▪ They were quickly convicted and sentenced to be burned at the stake.
▪ He was pursued, as described in the rhyme, until caught at Grassgill End where he was burned at the stake.
▪ In those days they would have burned geneticists at the stake.
▪ I might well have got myself burned upon a stake, although in those days that wasn't all that difficult.
▪ This was her husband and he was being burned at the stake.
buy
▪ Although the under-18s can not trade shares themselves, adults can buy stakes in collective investment funds on their behalf.
▪ And it is taking the unusual step of buying ownership stakes in some projects.
▪ Members do not simply join it, they buy a stake in it.
▪ But they will be allowed to buy stakes of up to 15 percent and after five years the barriers will come down.
▪ Union des Assurances de Paris is tipped to buy the 21 p.c. stake in Skandia.
▪ Mr Perelman previously attempted to buy a stake in Salomon Brothers, which rejected his approach.
control
▪ Carso owns controlling stakes in 12 companies, including outfits in the mining, auto parts, cigarette and retail industries.
drive
▪ If one wins while wrestling with the devil, one must drive a stake into his heart.
hold
▪ Telefonica holds a 60% stake in the company, local partners the rest.
▪ Gengold operates a total of 11 mines under management contracts and holds equity stakes in each.
increase
▪ A part disposal is occurring here - the effect is to increase the stake of the minority shareholders from 20% to 45%.
▪ Currently, Packer is prevented from increasing his stake above the current 17 percent by cross-media ownership rules.
▪ The consortium paid US$50,000,000 for a 30 percent stake in Ikarus, with an option to increase the stake to 48 percent.
▪ Continental is expected to try and increase its stake - or bid.
own
▪ Greene King failed in its attempt to take over Morland; it now owns a 29.32% stake in the Thames Valley brewer.
▪ Discount Investment, which rose 2. 25 percent, owns a 26 percent stake in Iscar.
▪ Carso owns controlling stakes in 12 companies, including outfits in the mining, auto parts, cigarette and retail industries.
play
▪ You thought you'd play - for higher stakes than those he was offering.
▪ I have tried to play for a large stake, and if I succeed all will be well.
▪ He found Zacco lightly intoxicated, and playing dice for high stakes among a circle of friends.
▪ We are playing for big stakes here.
▪ But commander-in-chief Douglas MacArthur wanted to play for higher stakes.
▪ A judge told William Sim and David Todd that they had been playing for high stakes and had to pay the penalty.
pull
▪ Moreover, when a business pulls up stakes or downsizes, an entire program can wither overnight.
▪ Sometimes, staying put is a greater act of courage than pulling up stakes and starting anew.
▪ So, he pulled up stakes and moved to Allen County to oversee a farm.
raise
▪ One whiff - and they raise the stakes by digging deeper into their pockets.
▪ More important, it raised the stakes.
▪ Superpower involvement has raised the stakes rather than lowered them.
▪ He raised the stakes when he could not win.
▪ In such circumstances, why raise the stakes by pursuing independence?
▪ Equally alarming is Costner's campaign to pressure state legislators to raise the maximum betting stake.
▪ Literary rivalry raised the stakes in the unfolding family romance.
▪ The erosion of investment grade credits, though, would raise the stakes for banks.
sell
▪ Mr Holmes a Court is thought to have taken advantage of the share's rapid progress, selling his 2 percent stake.
▪ The elder Clarks and the Wrights had sold off their stakes.
▪ Hanson, the industrial holding company, announced it had sold almost half its stake in packaging-to-adhesives group Wassall.
▪ He has specifically mentioned selling a stake in the road.
▪ SmithKline might sell its 84% stake in Beckman, a scientific-instrument business, and Allergan, an eye-care subsidiary.
▪ Hanson was fended off, and sold his stake a year later, but the episode had unleashed shock waves.
▪ If he does not do so, Edwards will be able to sell his stake to the highest bidder.
take
▪ It may take a stake in the venture.
▪ Jaguar plunged 46p to 685p as General Motors confirmed it is in talks that could result in it taking a minority stake.
▪ Cook has already promised to take a 12.5 percent stake in Owners via a tender offer, provided the Airtours bid failed.
▪ Radio Investments has taken its stake in Kent-based radio station Invicta Sound to 10.47 percent through the purchase of another 1.39 percent.
▪ The process of centralization has involved governments in taking a major stake in investments which were previously foreign-owned.
▪ Three years ago Rover linked up with Honda, which took a 20 percent stake in the company.
▪ Granada Media agreed to take a 5 % stake in Arsenal football club, valuing the side at $ 570m.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
majority stake/shareholding etc
▪ And if the deceased director owned a majority shareholding, the surviving directors could suddenly find themselves with a new boss.
▪ Demand from investors will determine how many new shares are issued, although Pittencrieff said yesterday it will retain a majority stake.
▪ Virgin was interested in the Ames group and took a majority shareholding.
▪ Vodafone, however, has a reputation of building up majority stakes in its company holdings.
put/bet/stake your shirt on sth
stake your claim (for sth)
▪ Before we staked our claim to our own windward isle, there was something I wanted to see first.
▪ Families were already staking their claims on the beach; children were digging eagerly as terriers, spraying sand all around them.
▪ Honor had been satisfied; each group had staked its claim to its own territory.
▪ If you want him, stake your claim.
▪ Other fish may have already staked their claim to other hiding places in your aquarium.
▪ Shastri died in 1966, and Indira Gandhi staked her claim.
▪ Those undertaking the drainage were quick to stake their claim to the best bits of land.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ China has a major stake in the project.
▪ She went into business by acquiring a stake in a copper mine in Australia.
▪ The American investor boosted his stake in the company to 15%.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As part of labor concession agreements with other airlines, the Airline Pilots Association has sought an equity stake in USAir.
▪ Its main partner is Scandinavian Broadcasting Systems, a media firm in which Disney has a 23 percent stake.
▪ The move puts off a decision on the question for at least several months, but it may well raise the stakes.
▪ The teacher himself, of course, has his job, his reputation and possibly his marriage at stake.
▪ There was simply too much at stake to leave things to chance.
▪ This is partly because of the importance of the interests at stake in immigration decisions: personal safety and liberty.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
out
▪ They'd staked out Culley's flat for half a day and most of the night.
▪ In the latter, parishioners staked out positions and courted support as though an election loomed.
▪ We had staked out the war memorial where the secret meeting was destined to occur.
▪ To Quebec, where the International Hockey League already has staked out an expansion franchise but could change its minds.
▪ My men will have had the place staked out since dawn.
▪ Patrol officers staked out the vehicle.
▪ They had already out guessed me, by staking out my favourite haunt.
▪ We staked out a spot on the beach and sat on a blanket eating buttered spaghetti and fried bananas.
■ NOUN
claim
▪ Others will have already staked a claim with tripods and telescopes.
▪ In the last six months, two fledgling dirt-shirt companies have staked claims to this earthy enterprise.
▪ If you want him, stake your claim.
▪ Honor had been satisfied; each group had staked its claim to its own territory.
▪ Those undertaking the drainage were quick to stake their claim to the best bits of land.
▪ Before we staked our claim to our own windward isle, there was something I wanted to see first.
▪ Shastri died in 1966, and Indira Gandhi staked her claim.
▪ He may have staked a claim for a regular place, particularly if Steven Gerrard is not fit.
company
▪ Fan said it wants to move away from being strictly a holding company, with minority stakes in large listed companies.
future
▪ But most staked their future on making a new commitment swiftly.
▪ Why else would we be staking our future on it?
▪ But they are also staking their future on economic growth.
ground
▪ All the meetings seemed to end up the same lately with everyone bickering and staking out political ground.
life
▪ She'd stake her life - and her love for him - on that.
▪ Why had he not staked everything on life for his son, gambled all for that life?
▪ An incredible horror-barely mitigated by the gallantry award and hero's status he had earned by staking his own life.
▪ He's a good head lad, Tremayne trusts him, but I wouldn't stake my life on his loyalty.
▪ He was prepared to stake his own life on it.
percent
▪ It will comprise telecommunications assets owned by Carso, including its 8. 4 percent stake in the telephone giant.
▪ Cablevision will pay $ 500 million in cash for an additional 38. 5 percent stake in Madison Square Garden.
▪ Cablevision can buy the remaining 11. 5 percent stake over the next three years.
▪ In the bankruptcy filing, Capital Cities is named as the lead investor, with a 20. 4 percent stake.
position
▪ He is a very mundane politician reading the focus group results and staking out a position he thinks will sell.
▪ In the latter, parishioners staked out positions and courted support as though an election loomed.
▪ He has staked out a unique position in the wars of digital supremacy, and he may well be right.
▪ In Iowa, where the antiabortion movement dominates Republican politics, Buchanan moved to stake out the strongest position on the subject.
▪ Compromise, the essence of politics, becomes more difficult after one has staked out a position in public.
reputation
▪ Mendeleev's contribution was to stake his reputation on it, and to see its power.
territory
▪ Long ago Maude and lack had staked out their territories.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I spent the afternoon staking up our tomato plants.
▪ One time he even staked his house on a roll of the dice.
▪ Part of the park was staked off to allow the grass to grow back.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All the meetings seemed to end up the same lately with everyone bickering and staking out political ground.
▪ He promised Draper and Berry that he would not stake the existence of Virgin on the airline.
▪ It was in her desperate kisses, the way she clutched at him, her hands roving possessively, staking out claims.
▪ Long ago Maude and lack had staked out their territories.
▪ Others will have already staked a claim with tripods and telescopes.
▪ Shastri died in 1966, and Indira Gandhi staked her claim.
▪ She'd stake her life - and her love for him - on that.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stake

Stake \Stake\ (st[=a]k), n. [AS. staca, from the root of E. stick; akin to OFries. & LG. stake, D. staak, Sw. stake, Dan. stage. See Stick, v. t., and cf. Estacade, Stockade.]

  1. A piece of wood, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a support or stay; as, a stake to support vines, fences, hedges, etc.

    A sharpened stake strong Dryas found.
    --Dryden.

  2. A stick inserted upright in a loop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, a flat car, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.

  3. The piece of timber to which a martyr was affixed to be burned; hence, martyrdom by fire.

  4. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, -- used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching upon, etc.

  5. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.

  6. (Mormon Ch.) A territorial division; -- called also stake of Zion.

    Every city, or ``stake,'' including a chief town and surrounding towns, has its president, with two counselors; and this president has a high council of chosen men.
    --Schaff-Herzog Encyc.

    At stake, in danger; hazarded; pledged. ``I see my reputation is at stake.''
    --Shak.

Stake

Stake \Stake\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Staked (st[=a]kd); p. pr. & vb. n. Staking.]

  1. To fasten, support, or defend with stakes; as, to stake vines or plants.

  2. To mark the limits of by stakes; -- with out; as, to stake out land; to stake out a new road.

  3. To put at hazard upon the issue of competition, or upon a future contingency; to wager; to pledge.

    I'll stake yon lamb, that near the fountain plays.
    --Pope.

  4. To pierce or wound with a stake.
    --Spectator.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
stake

"pointed stick or post," Old English staca "pin, stake," from Proto-Germanic *stakon (cognates: Old Norse stiaki, Danish stage, Old Frisian stake, Middle Dutch stake, Dutch staak, German stake), from PIE root *steg- (1) "pole, stick." The Germanic word has been borrowed in Spanish (estaca), Old French (estaque), and Italian stacca) and was borrowed back as attach.\n

\nMeaning "post upon which persons were bound for death by burning" is recorded from c.1200. Meaning "vertical bar affixed to the edge of a platform of s truck, rail car, etc., to hold boards to keep the load from falling off" is from 1875; hence stake-body as a type of truck (1907). In pull up stakes, "The allusion is to pulling up the stakes of a tent" [Bartlett].

stake

early 14c., "to mark (land) with stakes," from stake (n.1). Hence, to stake a claim (1857). Meaning "to maintain surveilance" (usually stake out) is first recorded 1942, American English colloquial, probably form earlier sense of "mark off territory." Related: Staked; staking. Old English had stacung "piercing of an effigy by a pin or stake" (in witchcraft); staccan "pierce with a stake, spit."

stake

"to risk, wager," 1520s, perhaps from notion of "post on which a gambling wager was placed" (see stake (n.2)), though Weekley suggests "there is a tinge of the burning or baiting metaphor" in this usage. Meaning "to maintain surveillance" (usually stake out) is first recorded 1942, American English colloquial, probably form earlier sense of "mark off territory." Related: Staked; staking.

stake

"that which is placed at hazard," 1530s, from stake (v.). Perhaps literally "that which is put up," from notion of "post on which a gambling wager was placed," though OED points out there is "no evidence of the existence of such a custom." Weekley suggests "there is a tinge of the burning or baiting metaphor" in this usage. Hence, "an interest, something to gain or lose" (1784). Plural stakes, "sum of money to be won in a (horse) race," first recorded 1690s (compare sweepstakes). To have a stake in is recorded from 1784.

Wiktionary
stake

n. 1 A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay. 2 # (cx croquet English) A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet. 3 A stick inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from fall off. 4 (qualifier: with definite article) The piece of timber to which a martyr was affixed to be burned. 5 A share or interest in a business or a given situation. 6 That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge. 7 A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching upon, etc. 8 (context Mormonism English) A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical are

  1. v

  2. 1 (context transitive English) To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes. 2 (context transitive English) To pierce or wound with a stake. 3 (context transitive English) To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency. 4 (context transitive English) To provide another with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.

Related phrases:
WordNet
stake

  1. n. (law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something; "they have interests all over the world"; "a stake in the company's future" [syn: interest]

  2. a pole or stake set up to mark something (as the start or end of a race track); "a pair of posts marked the goal"; "the corner of the lot was indicated by a stake" [syn: post]

  3. instrument of execution consisting of a vertical post that a victim is tied to for burning

  4. the money risked on a gamble [syn: stakes, bet, wager]

stake

  1. v. put at risk; "I will stake my good reputation for this" [syn: venture, hazard, adventure, jeopardize]

  2. place a bet on; "Which horse are you backing?"; "I'm betting on the new horse" [syn: bet on, back, gage, game, punt]

  3. mark with a stake; "stake out the path" [syn: post]

  4. tie or fasten to a stake; "stake your goat"

  5. kill by piercing with a spear or sharp pole; "the enemies were impaled and left to die" [syn: impale]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Stake

Stake may refer to:

Stake (Latter Day Saints)

A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. A stake is comparable to a diocese in the Catholic Church. The name "stake" derives from the verse "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes". A stake is sometimes referred to as a stake of Zion.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "stake".

With such words, Dostoevsky is anticipatorily staking out the novelistic domain in which he will soon achieve his greatest triumphs.

As I joined the autostrada, I wondered how long Giani would stake out the pensione.

Sharpened stakes were stuck in the sides of the ramparts, so that the compound bristled, like some great hedgehog of wood and mud.

I took all the gold I found, and playing the martingale, and doubling my stakes continuously, I won every day during the remainder of the carnival.

A similar false note is struck by any speaker or writer who misapprehends his position or forgets his disqualifications, by newspaper writers using language that is seemly only in one who stakes his life on his words, by preachers exceeding the license of fallibility, by moralists condemning frailty, by speculative traders deprecating frank ways of hazard, by Satan rebuking sin.

The verdigrised black head and cape of an ancient Molt were mounted on a stake welded to the bow of one of the cars.

Although the guardsmen still struggled to keep the space around the torture stake open, hands reached from the sides and back to pull Muru down.

She thought that she could probably walk right out of the bailey and across the drawbridge, lowered now for the constant influx and outflux of traffic, pedestrian and vehicular alike, but too much was at stake for her to take a chance of being recognized and stopped.

Butler, one of the two heavy weapons men, who carried the machine gun, saying it was Persico who checked his aiming stakes, who told him where to tie in his fire, who supervised the laying of the claymores.

She was fond of piquet, and we played together for small stakes for some time.

He saw what the Ploughers and the Castellans had failed to see, namely that while Toom Drommel and his party had no great desire to be associated with either the economic ineptitude of the Ploughers, or the strutting posturing of the Castellans, they also had no desire to be seen as a party that could not make up its mind, or take a stern stand where the safety of Madren citizens was at stake.

The rich man who reposes In his ancestral shade, The peasant at his ploughshare, The worker at his trade, Each one his all his perilled, Each has the same great stake, Each soul can but have patience, Each heart can only break!

Carefully balanced, the sheet would tilt down when an unwitting soldier stepped on it, impaling his body on the pungi stakes arranged below.

The corn stubble had mostly been plowed under, but much of it still projected from the ground at crazy angles like pungi stakes.

I hate to sound stupid like this, but what in the Hell is a punji stake?