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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stay busk

Stay \Stay\, n. [Cf. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai support, and E. stay a rope to support a mast.]

  1. That which serves as a prop; a support. ``My only strength and stay.''
    --Milton.

    Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.
    --Addison.

    Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry.
    --Coleridge.

  2. pl. A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.

    How the strait stays the slender waist constrain.
    --Gay.

  3. Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.

    Make haste, and leave thy business and thy care; No mortal interest can be worth thy stay.
    --Dryden.

    Embrace the hero and his stay implore.
    --Waller.

  4. Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.

    Made of sphere metal, never to decay Until his revolution was at stay.
    --Milton.

    Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay.
    --Hayward.

  5. Hindrance; let; check. [Obs.]

    They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.
    --Robynson (More's Utopia).

  6. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety. [Obs.] ``Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.''
    --Herbert.

    The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.
    --Bacon.

    With prudent stay he long deferred The rough contention.
    --Philips.

  7. (Engin.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.

    Stay bolt (Mech.), a bolt or short rod, connecting opposite plates, so as to prevent them from being bulged out when acted upon by a pressure which tends to force them apart, as in the leg of a steam boiler.

    Stay busk, a stiff piece of wood, steel, or whalebone, for the front support of a woman's stays. Cf. Busk.

    Stay rod, a rod which acts as a stay, particularly in a steam boiler.